|
Axis and Soviet air operations during Operation Barbarossa took place over a six-month period, 22 June – December, 1941. Aviation was to play 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. The Axis air forces were generally better equipped, trained and experienced in executing military tactics and operations. This superiority was increased because of the Great Purge in the 1930s and mass expansion of Soviet air forces, which did severe damage to organisational structures. On the opening day, Axis counter-air operations succeeded in destroying 2,000 Soviet aircraft, and gaining air superiority. The success of the strike enabled the Axis to support their armies in highly successful encirclement battles in July to September 1941. Its transport fleet helped fly in vital supplies to the army when the Russian Winter weather made supply difficult on the ground. In particular, the Luftwaffe played an important role on the defensive, countering the Soviet offensive in December 1941. Despite debilitating losses, Soviet aviation also played a crucial role in stemming the invasion and allowing the Red Army to organise defences; first before Leningrad in July, then in slowing down the occupation of the Ukraine, enabling the withdrawal of industries to the Ural Mountains, in the Crimea, enabling a long-term stand at Sevastopol, and then during the defence and counter-offensive at Moscow. In the event, the Axis land and air operations failed to achieve their ultimate goal – the defeat of the Soviet armed forces. When operations ended in December 1941, both sides had suffered heavy losses, unparalleled in the history of air warfare to this point.〔Wagner and Fetzer 1974, p. vi.〕 Some 21,000 Soviet and several thousand Axis aircraft were destroyed. With its factories in the Urals, out of range from Axis medium bombers, Soviet production increased out-stripping its enemies and enabling the country to replace its aerial losses. The Axis had vastly underestimated Soviet industrial and technical potential. In the following years, Soviet air power recovered from the Purges and losses, gradually gaining in tactical and operational competence while closing the technical gap. ==Grand strategy== By June 1941, the Wehrmacht and its Allies had defeated the Western Allies in Scandinavia, Western Europe and in the Balkans. Aside from the defeat in the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe had played a vital part in the success of the German Army. With the British expelled from the continent, and the French defeated, the Axis powers were in a comfortable position in Europe. The British Empire and its Commonwealth could only engage the Axis in the air and at sea, while the North African Campaign was unlikely to threaten the Axis hold in Europe at this point. Adolf Hitler could turn towards his long-term ambition of destroying the Soviet Union as a military, political and economic power, by occupying the western end of the country to the A-A line, which fell just short of the Ural Mountains. The defeat of the Soviet Union and the occupation of its territory would yield vast resources, such as oil, rare metals, industrial cities and huge populations which would work for Third Reich as slave labourers. It would also give enormous Lebensraum (Living Space) to the Reich, and destroy what Hitler perceived to be Communism and Jewish-Bolshevism which had been a main theme for the National Socialists since Hitler's political testament in ''Mein Kampf'', published in 1924.〔Murray 1983, p. 78.〕 On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued Directive 21, which ordered preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, to begin.〔Glantz and House 1995, p. 31.〕 His recently acquired allies, Romania, Slovakia and Finland assisted militarily and allowed their countries to be used as a base for the Wehrmacht to launch its campaign.〔Boog 1998, pp. 398, 409, 1041-1042.〕 By 1941, German was in dire need of the raw materials and oil resources the Soviet Union could offer. The war with the British Empire was far from concluded, and the United States of America was supporting her, and showing an increasingly hostile attitude to the Axis powers. A protracted war in the East could be disastrous, so a quick victory was essential.〔Plocher 1968, pp. 1, 8.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Axis and Soviet air operations during Operation Barbarossa」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|