Air Battles Over the Baltic 1941 Volume 4: The Day of Reckoning, Afternoon Battles and Aftermath

A detailed reconstruction of the afternoon battles on 22 June 1941 in the Baltic skies, showing the Luftwaffe's rapid dominance and the Red Air Force's devastating losses.

Volume 4 of Air Battles Over the Baltic 1941 brings Mikhail Timin's detailed reconstruction of the opening day of Operation Barbarossa to its conclusion. Picking up where the previous volume ended, it follows the air war from the first aerial combats of the morning through the successive waves of Luftwaffe attacks, the Soviet response and the eventual withdrawal of the Air Forces of the North-Western Front to second-line airfields. Drawing extensively upon German and Soviet archival sources, Timin reconstructs the decisions, orders and combat operations that determined the struggle for air superiority over the Baltic region on 22 June 1941.

The volume examines the confused and often contradictory Soviet response to the German invasion. Hampered by Directive No.1 and by orders warning commanders not to respond to 'provocation', Soviet pilots and commanders struggled to determine when and how they were permitted to engage the enemy. Timin traces the attempted retaliatory strikes against German airfields, their cancellation by higher command, and the subsequent diversion of Soviet aviation against advancing Wehrmacht columns in East Prussia and Lithuania. Particular attention is paid to the operations of the Soviet fighter, bomber and ground-attack regiments, and to the heavy losses sustained during missions flown without adequate reconnaissance, coordination or fighter protection.

At the heart of the book is a meticulous, hour-by-hour reconstruction of the repeated Luftwaffe attacks upon Soviet airfields and of the increasingly intense air battles fought above Alytus, Orany, Siauliai, Karmelava, Liepaja, Kaunas and Vilnius. Timin demonstrates how German commanders combined tactical flexibility, repeated attacks and the concentrated use of experienced fighter formations to wear down Soviet resistance. At the same time, he challenges the familiar image of the Soviet air forces being destroyed in a single overwhelming blow, showing instead how their losses accumulated throughout a long day of combat, bombing, strafing, emergency landings and hurried evacuation.

The concluding analysis compares the claims and losses of both sides, evaluates the effectiveness of Soviet attacks on German ground forces, and examines why the Luftwaffe had secured air superiority by the end of the day despite failing to eliminate the Soviet aviation force completely. Combining detailed operational analysis with vivid accounts from participants, this volume offers one of the most comprehensive studies yet published of the first day of the air war on the Eastern Front. It is supported by an extensive selection of archival photographs, detailed maps, operational tables and colour aircraft profiles.

This revised and expanded edition features a thoroughly revised main text and substantially expanded colour profile captions, providing additional historical, technical and operational information on the aircraft and personnel depicted. It also includes a new infographic explaining the tactics employed by Luftwaffe fighters against Soviet airfields, together with a comprehensive series bibliography, further strengthening the volume's value as both a reference work and a detailed study of the opening air campaign of Operation Barbarossa.