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Axis and Soviet air operations during Operation Barbarossa took place over a six-month period, 22 June – December, 1941. Aviation played a critical role in the fighting on the Eastern Front during this period, in the battles to gain and maintain air superiority or air supremacy, to offer close air support to armies on battlefield, interdicting enemy supply lines, while supplying friendly forces.
Siegfried Simsch (6 September 1913 – 8 June 1944) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator and fighter ace during World War II. He is credited with 54 aerial victories, all of which claimed on the Eastern Front, achieved in approximately 400 combat missions. Born in Posen and half Jewish, Simsch joined the military service in the Luftwaffe.
On 22 June 1941, the opening day of Operation Barbarossa, Schieß scored his first victories destroying an Polikarpov I-153 biplane fighter and an Ilyushin DB-3 bomber. [6] The members of his Staffel called him "Nawratil", after his radio call sign name. After achieving 14 kills on the Eastern Front he was withdrawn in August, along with the ...
Within a few weeks of Barbarossa beginning, it was able to put up 1,061 aircraft, including 400 trainers. [14] The modern combat aircraft were focused into one unified Air Combat Command, or GAL (Gruparea Aeriana Lupta), while the obsolete types were given the Romanian Fourth Army, operating under the German Army Group South. [15]
The Soviet Air Force held the numerical advantage with a total of approximately 19,533 aircraft, which made it the largest air force in the world in the summer of 1941. [169] About 7,133–9,100 of these were deployed in the five western military districts, [n] [169] [11] [12] and an additional 1,445 were under naval control. [170]
During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, he accumulated further victories and by the end of 1941 his score had increased to 23 aerial victories. After being promoted to an Officers rank, he was appointed Staffelkapitän (squadron leader) of 11.
Josef Zwernemann (26 March 1916 – 8 April 1944) was a German Luftwaffe military aviator during World War II and a fighter ace credited with 126 enemy aircraft shot down in over 600 combat missions. The majority of his victories were claimed on the Eastern Front , with ten aerial victories claimed over the Western Front during the Battle of ...
At 17:00 on 21 June 1941, the 5th Air Corps, based at Lipsko, briefed the various unit commanders of the upcoming attack. [Note 2] That evening, Gruppenkommandeur (group commander) of II. Gruppe Lothar Keller informed his subordinates of the attack. [3] The next day, the first day of Operation Barbarossa, Fuß claimed his first aerial victory. [4]