History 06/02/20 aviation Vlasov: as the pilots fought traitors against the red Army
the Russian liberation army General Andrei Vlasov remained in history as “stillborn” too late, the Germans made the decision on its formation. However, the plans were ambitious. Vlasov had even its own air force, the personnel of which have distinguished themselves in the fight against the guerrillas in the Baltics and Belarus.
a Group of Holders
History of the air force Committee for the liberation of the peoples of Russia (ACPD) actually began in the spring of 1942, when Soviet POWs were allowed on the airfields of the Luftwaffe as a staff.
However, the first military unit was formed only in 1943 in the village of Marisfeld in East Prussia, near Konigsberg. There was a branch “Vostok”, which got the Soviet pilots landed by parachute behind enemy lines or voluntarily defected to the Germans. Head of the “Vostok” Colonel G. Holters in September 1943 received an order from the office of Hermann Goering to create the Russian pilots defectors special aviation group. To help Holders have been identified 48-year-old Colonel Viktor Ivanovich Maltsev, former head of the sanatorium of “Aeroflot” in Yalta, which after the occupation of the Crimea have offered their services to the enemy and became mayor of Yalta. At Maltsev had enough reason to hate the Soviet power in 1938, the KGB tortured him, accusing the military of sabotage (what he told in his memoirs, “Pipeline GPU”).
according to historian Kirill Alexandrov, Maltsev gave “freedom of action in the recruitment of volunteers in pow camps belonged to the Luftwaffe, and the position of the Russian group commander with the rank of Colonel and disciplinary rights of the commander of the squadron”. The Colonel agreed, as eventually hoped to expand this unit into a full-fledged aviation RusRussian liberation army (ROA).
the First part of the Russian aviation group (generally included in the 1st Eastern squadron of the Luftwaffe) of Holders-Mal consisted of only 15 pilots. Maltsev selected them very carefully, looking for the most sincere opponents of the Stalinist regime. Prior to the dissolution of air group in September 1944 through it passed 100 people – not only pilots, but also aircraft engineers. One of them was titled Soviet pilots – for example, the captain of the red army Semyon Bychkov, hero of the Soviet Union.
Russian sky
for the First time Russian pilots of the Luftwaffe were on the front 3 December 1943 in the district of Daugavpils. 9 pilots on the U-2 planes, Gotha 145A and Hypertension 66C joined the Estonian and Latvian squadrons, which carried out night bombing of Soviet positions. In the future, the squadron was involved in scouting, aerial photography and raids on partisans. She acted in Naliboki forest on the Neman and near Molodechno (Minsk region). During missions pilots 9, bitstream and navigators were killed and 12 people were injured.
“Before disbanding in the summer of 1944 ranks of the squadron made not less than 500 sorties, each of them in average had 35 to 50 flights”, – said Kirill Alexandrov.
Others who served in the Russian air group pilots mainly performed technical tasks for the Luftwaffe, for example, were pushing the aircraft from one aerodrome to the other.
In agreement with General Vlasov in September 1944 in the city of Eger (Sudetenland) Maltsev-based staff of the Russian aviation group started to equip the 1st regiment of troops ACPD 6 squadrons (actually managed to form 3). In early 1945 Maltsev has officially held the position of commander of the air force of ROA, which in organizational terms was finally separated from the Luftwaffe. In addition to Soviet POWs in the composition of aviamodelling entered immigrants, who had, for example, experience of service in the Royal air force of Yugoslavia. The total strength of the VVS amounted to 5 thousand people, technical engineerscue fleet consisted of 37 aircraft. It was decided to enter a private identification marks on the basis of the St. Andrew’s cross.
However to prove themselves in the battles of the Vlasov aircraft actually did not have time – the war came to an end. The only time the pilots of the air force ACPD faced with Stalin’s falcons 13 April 1945. A squadron of night bombers were involved in the unsuccessful operation of the ROA “April weather” on the springboard “Erlenhof” on the Oder.
After may 9, 1945, the fate of the pilots of the traitors basically was tragic. For example, Bychkov surrendered to the Americans were issued the Soviet Union and in 1946 was shot in Moscow. Colonel Maltsev repatriation unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide. In the end, commander of the air force were executed together with General Vlasov.
Timur Sagdiyev
Source:
© Russian Seven
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