The beginning of the war.
In the war with the Soviet Union, the Nazis assigned a special role to their aviation, which by that time had already gained complete dominance in the air in the West. Basically, the plan to use aviation in the East was the same as the war in the West: first to conquer the air and then to deploy forces to support the ground army.
Having specified the dates of the attack on the Soviet Union, the Hitler ite command set the following tasks for the Luftwaffe:
1. A sudden blow to the Soviet airfields to defeat the Soviet aviation.
2. Achieve complete dominance in the air.
3. After solving the first two tasks, switch the air force to support ground forces directly on the battlefield.
4. Disrupt the work of Soviet transport, make it difficult to move troops both in the front and rear.
5. Bombard large industrial centers — Moscow, Gorky, Robins, Yaroslavl, Kharkov, Tulsa.
In the morning of June 22, 1941, probably 2-3 weeks ahead of the USSR, Germany dealt a crushing blow to our airfields. Only for 8 hours of war 1200 planes were lost, there was a mass death of flight personnel, storehouses and all stocks were destroyed. Historians noted a strange “crowding” of our aviation at the airfields before the war and complained about the “mistakes” and “miscalculations” of the command (i.e. Stalin) in the assessment of events. In fact, “congestion” foreshadows plans for a super-massed strike on targets and confidence in impunity, which did not happen. The Air Force's flight personnel, especially the bombers, due to the lack of support fighters suffered great losses, there was a tragedy of death, perhaps the most perfect and powerful air fleet in the history of mankind, which had to be revived under the blows of the enemy.
It is necessary to recognize that in 1941 and the first half of 1942 Hittites managed to realize their plans of air war to a great extent. Almost all the available forces of Hitler's aviation were thrown against the Soviet Union, including the units taken off the Western Front. It was supposed that after the first successful operations, part of the bomber and fighter units would be returned to the West for the war with England. In the beginning of the war the Nazis had not only quantitative superiority. Their advantage was the fact that the flight personnel who took part in the air attack, had already passed a serious school fights with French, Polish and English pilots. They also had a considerable experience of interaction with their troops, acquired in the war against Western Europe.
Old types of fighters and bombers, such as I-15, I-16, SB, TB-3 could not compete with the latest Messtershmiths and Junkers. Nevertheless, in the air battles that unfolded, even on outdated types of aircraft, the Russian pilots caused damage to the Germans. From June 22 to July 19, Germany lost 1,300 planes in air battles alone.
Here is what the German general statistician Great writes about it: "During the period from June 22 to July 5, 1941, the German Air Force lost 807 planes.
6 Evacuation of the aviation industry
By October 1941, Wehrmacht's armies approached Moscow, cities supplying components for aircraft factories were occupied, the time came for the evacuation of factories and design bureau of Sushi, Yakovlev, etc. in Moscow, Ilyushin in Voronezh, demanded the evacuation of all the factories in the European part of the USSR.
Production of aircraft in November 1941 was reduced by more than three and a half times.
Already on July 5, 1941, the Soviet People's Commissariat of the USSR made a decision to evacuate a part of the equipment of some airborne devices plants from the central regions of the country to duplicate their production in Western Siberia, and after a while it was necessary to make a decision on evacuation of the entire airline industry.
On November 9, 1941, the State Defense Committee approved the schedules of restoration and start-up of the evacuated plants and production plans.
The task was not only to restore the production of aircraft, but also to significantly increase their quantity and quality. In December 1941, the plan for the production of airplanes was fulfilled by less than 40 per cent, and engines by only 24 per cent.
In the toughest conditions, under bombs, in the cold and cold of the Siberian winters one after the other, the back-up plants were put into operation. The technologies were clarified and simplified, new types of materials were used (without detriment to the quality), women and teenagers stood up for the machines.
The supplies under the Land-Lease were also important for the front. Throughout the Second World War, aircraft were supplied with 4-5 percent of the total production of aircraft and other weapons produced in the United States. However, a number of materials and equipment supplied by the U.S., England, was unique and irreplaceable for Russia /varnishes, paints, other chemicals, instruments, tools, equipment, medicines, etc./ that cannot be characterized as “insignificant” or secondary.