What is a good/best book on the P39 in Soviet service?

[pinsog]

I am looking for a good book on the P39 in Soviet service. Any recommendations?

 

[tomo pauk]

Looks like 'Airacobras over Kuban' is a good one.
Also: Soviet Lend-Lease Fighter Aces of World War 2
Might be an interesting article, FWIW: Early Cobra's in Soviet Aviation

 

[pinsog]

Thank you

 

[fubar57]

I haven't read them but they look interesting. The first is a memoir...

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The next one is the one Tomo mentioned and it is all in Russian but the book is strongly recommended to everyone interested in the P-39 and in the Soviet Aviation History, its called "Airacobras Over Kuban...

 

[nuuumannn]

They look good. I have the Osprey book P-39 Airacobra Aces of WW2, which is quite a good little account for those who are after something a little more generic. I know there are those on this forum who don't favour the Osprey titles, but there are individual authors who are very good and that makes the books good value for money.

 

[parsifal]

Not exclusively dealing with P-39s in VVS service, but "Red Phoenix" is a nice single volume general account in English

 

[michaelmaltby]

"Attack of the Aracobras: Soviet Aces American P-39s", Dimitry Loza. University Press Kansas.

Amazon product ASIN 0700616543View: https://www.amazon.com/Attack-Airacobras-American-Against-Paperback/dp/0700616543

 

[John D. Voss]

The book series "Red Stars" written by Geust are quite good for histories both descriptive and photographic. I had always heard that the P-39's and P-63's were allocated primarily for tank-busting. No so (!) according to Geust. Their mission was primarily air to air combat and tank busting was assigned to the IL-2 Stomoviks (sp?).

 

[gjs238]

apparently the last word on them is a book called 'Cobra' by Birch Matthews, a former Bell engineer. It's a 416 page hard-cover [Schiffer, 1996]...

 

[tomo pauk]

The book series "Red Stars" written by Geust are quite good for histories both descriptive and photographic. I had always heard that the P-39's and P-63's were allocated primarily for tank-busting. No so (!) according to Geust. Their mission was primarily air to air combat and tank busting was assigned to the IL-2 Stomoviks (sp?).

Very true.
Stormovik was a general-purpose assault/attack bomber, one of it's missions being vehicle/AFV/tank busting, whether with cannons or with bomb dispensers. The P-39 was beloved by Soviet fighter pilots, being a far better fighter and aircraft in general than Soviet types (better fit & finish, all metal, workable radios, reasonably well armed, faster), and many aces flew P-39. The 37mm cannon on the P-39 was with low muzzle velocity, hence a bad anti-tank wepon. It looks like the Soviets never received any AP ammo for it anyway.

 

[gjs238]

Any word on what the Germans thought of the P-39?

 

[MIflyer]

I suggest the Osprey book on P-39 Aces. It covers the Soviet use. One of the more interesting findings in that book is that when later Soviet built fighters came out, such as the Yak-3, Yak-9, and LA-5, the P-39 units did not transition to those seemingly more advanced aircraft but stayed with the P-39.

And as Tomo said, the 37 MM gun's antitank capability was slim to none, being designed for air-to-air. The RAF did tests and found the 40MM guns fitted to Hurricanes for use in North Africa would crack a captured German tank. The USAAF urged them to try the P-39 for that role but the RAF found it would not crack a German tank; they also found that the ejector rod was too long and the 37MM would jam after one shot - they had to saw it off in order to do the tests. This is in the book "Druids' Circle" about RAF armament testing in WWII.

 

[John D. Voss]

FYI,
Here are some interesting accounts by Soviet pilots of US and UK provided aircraft...

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