5th Air Army (Red Army)

5th Air Army
active
Country	Soviet Union
Armed forces	Red Army
Armed forces	Air Force
Type	army

The 5th Air Army ( Russian 5-я воздушная армия ) was an association of the Soviet Air Force .

history

It was set up in June 1942 and initially deployed in the North Caucasus , where it completed 14,374 missions from August to October 1942 alone. Their initial inventory amounted to five aviation divisions (236th, 237th and 265th IAD, 238th SchAD and 132nd BAD) as well as some independent aviation regiments. The commander was General Sergei Goryunov throughout the war . In autumn 1943 it was placed under the steppe front and took part in the heavy fighting over the Kuban bridgehead with the 4th Air Army and the naval pilots of the Black Sea Fleet . She came to the 2nd Ukrainian Front on October 20, 1943. The further route of the battle led through Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria, where the units ended the Second World War . In total, the 5th Air Army flew over 180,000 sorties during the war. 139 members were honored as Hero of the Soviet Union , four received the title twice.

When the association was renamed the 48th Air Army in 1949, the association was relocated to the Odessa Military District . In 1952 the association was renamed the 5th Air Army .

literature

• Wilfried Copenhagen : Lexicon Soviet Aviation. Elbe – Dnjepr, Klitzschen 2007, ISBN 978-3-933395-90-0 .

Remarks

1. ↑ IAD: fighter Division (istrebitelnaja awiazionnaja diwisija) Schad: Battlefield Air Division (schturmowaja awiazionnaja diwisija) BAD: bomb Fliegerdivision (bombardirowotschnaja awiazionnaja diwisija).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dieter Stammer: Turning point. The Russian air power in transition. Part 1: Soviet Union. In: Fliegerrevue extra . No. 20, March 2008, ISSN  0941-889X , p. 44/45.