Oleg's Russian Interview Translated

[Kahuna]

[QUOTE=nearmiss;
Oleg is on target. This IL2 raised my awareness for the first time about the Soviet airwar. Americans have been in information blackout on Russia and still are for the most part. I have bought up every Russian air war book I found for these past years.[/QUOTE]


Great Update--Looking forward to the real deal, Thank you.


I loved to build model planes as a kid. One of the models I really liked was the shark mouthed P-39. The Monogram model kit offered 2 ways to build the the P39 --the Russain version complete with decals (plus kill stars) and a US version. There was even a brief description of how the Russains used the P39.

That was my introduction to the air war on the Eastern Front as a kid in the 1960's.

I agree with the "awareness" comment but there has never been an information "blackout". The information has always been there but the Eastern Front was not pushed into the limelight. I remember mostly the Lend Lease program being taught in school to help England and Russia in the war effort. I think most countries naturally concentrate on that part of history which affected them the most.

While most americans were probably not as familiar with the Eastern Front as they should of been it was probably the same for russains not being as familiar with a high altitude daylight strategic bombing campaign with 1000 bomber raids & high altitude fighter escorts on the Western Front

The Western Front was a long range, high altitude, high speed aerial engagement. The Eastern Front was low to medium altitudes at mostly shorter ranges & moderate speeds. Both required different types of aircraft to fullfill mission parameters. There is also the "way" western aircraft were flown as both Brits & US aircraft were flown heavily overboosted utilizing 150grade aviation fuel resulting in these aircraft exceeding their factory specs in everday operations by 15-20%.

So in my humble opinon I think it would be safe to say that all sides learned interesting historical facts thru IL2 about Russain, German, Italian, British, Japanese, & American aircraft. Also WWII history from all sides.


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