The Soviet Air Force modernization was just a bit behind the schedule. While there were plenty of advanced technologies and “know-how”s developed, a solid portion of which were bought in Germany, the mass production of the latest models was lagging behind the German rearmament.
The new quite decent Yak-1 fighters were not available in mass in the frontline units on the fateful day of 22 June, while the LaGG 3 fighters had rather serious shortcomings and were inferior to their German counterparts. Because of its varnished wooden hull, the LaGG abbreviation (officially Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov — designers’ family names) was read by some pilots with dark irony as Guaranteed Varnished Coffin (has the same capitalization in Russian).
One of the reasons behind the Soviet engineers’ failings was the infighting and political struggle between the KB’s (Engineering bureaus). The easiest way to get “your” aircraft mass-produced was to make the competing bureaus fail. Various tactics were employed: political lobbying, diversions during the test flights of new models, that in some cases led to ace pilots deaths, and so on, and so forth. Additionally, some talented engineers, who fell out of favor, were subject to forced labor in the special labor camps for scientists. That certainly cannot be called an inspiring working atmosphere…
Despite all hurdles, by 1943 the Soviet aircraft technology had caught up with the German one. At the same time, USSR was churning many more aircraft in terms of raw numbers throughout the war. Thus, in 1943 Germany found itself heavily outmatched. The Soviet air force was much more numerous and featured comparable models, giving the Luftwaffe a very hard time.
The later La-5 and La-7 models were big improvements on the promising albeit faulty LaGG-3 model. By correcting the existing issues, the engineers finally caught up with the German counterparts.
We will keep posting new units that will appear for the first time in the Strategic Mind series, so stay tuned!
With best regards
Starni Games team