Worker-peasant Red Air Force. Workers' and Peasants' Red Air Fleet

Cm. Chiefs

Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF)- an auxiliary branch of the Red Army, formed during the Civil War. Main tasks: combating enemy aircraft, reconnaissance, air support ground forces. Historically, the RKKVF was divided into aviation and aeronautics.

History of creation

Personnel and training

During the Civil War

At the initial stage, the basis of the personnel of the RKKVF was made up of revolutionary-minded pilot-officers, pilot-soldiers, minders who joined it. At the same time, pilot training began at the Moscow, Yegoryevsk (on the basis of the evacuated Gatchina) and Zaraisk schools, as well as at the Petrograd school of aeronauts. In 1919, a school of aviation mechanics was relocated to Moscow from Kyiv, a school of pilot-observers was opened here (both were transferred to Petrograd in 1921), and a higher aerial photogrammetric school began to operate (in 1920 it was transformed into a school of aviation special services). In Sept. 1919, on the initiative of N. E. Zhukovsky, the Moscow Aviation College was established - the country's first educational institution for the training of engineering and technical. personnel for aviation (in 1920 it was transformed into the N. E. Zhukovsky Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet). In total, during the war years, 292 specialists were trained for the RKKVF, including 155 pilots, 75 observer pilots, and 62 aeronauts. The training of minders was carried out at courses at front-line aircraft fleets. In 1919, by order of the RVSR, reserves of aviation specialists (27 permanent and 350 variable personnel) were created in the Moscow Military District, on the North Caucasian and Southern Fronts to replenish the active units of the RKKVF.

The creation of the RKKVF, which had a strong core of personnel, single system acquisition and supply, a stable and uniform organization, centralized management, was completed in the spring of 1919. In Aug. this year, only in the active army there were 146 aviation units and institutions, including 4 field aviation and aeronautics departments of the fronts and 16 army departments, 67 squadrons, a division of heavy airships, 3 air units special purpose, Group special purpose. They were armed with about 350 aircraft. 28 aeronautical detachments and 5 aeronautical divisions were formed. The total staff strength of the RKKV personnel was 22,974 people, including 9,006 in land aviation, 5,190 in aeronautical units, and 8,778 in repair and supply bodies. In naval aviation, there were 2904 people. Subsequently, the combat strength of aviation was maintained at approximately the same level. Most of the units were attached to the combined arms armies. At the disposal of Ch. command were the Ilya Muromets airship division and 3-6 squadrons.

Separate detachment of the RKKVF- the initial basic unit of the formation of the RKKVF, which was a military unit with an independent economy. In charge of separate detachment The RKKVF had a Council consisting of a military leader and two military commissars. He had a small headquarters and an inspectorate.

• Floating air base "Amur" (68th separate river aviation detachment) RKKVF;

Aircraft fleet and aviation industry of the republic

During the Civil War

Of particular difficulty in the construction of the RKKVF was its equipping with aircraft and various technical equipment. Initially, aircraft were used to create aviation units. old army(over 1300 cars of various brands). Measures were taken to release new aircraft. By October 1917 Russian Empire there were 18 aviation (11 aircraft, 5 engine, 2 propeller) and several mixed factories, but many of them ended up in the hands of the White Army and interventionists. Therefore, the production of aircraft and engines was established only in Moscow (Dux, formerly F. E. Moska, Ikar, aerotechnical) and Petrograd (Russian-Baltic, formerly V. A. Lebedev and S. S. Shchetinkin) factories. To manage these plants in Dec. In 1918, the Main Directorate of United Aviation Plants (Glavkoavia) was formed as part of the Supreme Council of National Economy.

In 1918-20, the country's aviation industry produced over 650 aircraft, and captured aircraft were also used (over 250 aircraft). In total, during the war years, the RKKVF had about 2,300 aircraft, of which about 300 remained in service by the end of the war. An important role in the construction of the RKKVF was played by the 2nd (June 1918), 3rd (March 1919) and 4th (June - July 1921) All-Russian congresses workers of aviation and aeronautics, where issues of the development of the aviation industry, science and technology, training of flight and technical personnel, improvement organizational structure RKKVF and methods of its combat use.

Awards

For high combat qualities, 219 pilots and pilot-observers were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 16 of them were awarded this award twice, and P. Kh. Mezheraup, Ya. N. Moiseev and E. M. Ukhin - three times. The 1st Fighter Aviation Battalion, 35th Reconnaissance, 51st Heavy Bomber Aviation and 9th Aeronautical Squadrons were awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banners. On the combat operations of the RKKVF and its tasks in battles and operations, see Art. Military aviation, Aeronautics.

Literature

• Civil War and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia. M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1983.
• Berezin P.F. Red aviation in the fight against the White Poles. - M.: Military Publishing House of NKO USSR, 1940. - 88 p.

Links

• Photo album of pilot-observer F.S. Hot photographs of the early history of the Red Army Air Force: photographs of aircraft of various types, pilots and technicians, airfields, aerial photographs.

see also

Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF)- auxiliary branch of the troops in the Red Army. Formed in the years civil war. Main tasks: combating enemy aircraft, reconnaissance, air support for ground forces. Historically, the RKKVF was divided into aviation and aeronautics.

Cm. Chiefs

Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF)- an auxiliary branch of the Red Army, formed during the Civil War. Main tasks: combating enemy aircraft, reconnaissance, air support for ground forces. Historically, the RKKVF was divided into aviation and aeronautics.

History of creation

Personnel and training

During the Civil War

At the initial stage, the basis of the personnel of the RKKVF was made up of revolutionary-minded pilot-officers, pilot-soldiers, minders who joined it. At the same time, pilot training began at the Moscow, Yegoryevsk (on the basis of the evacuated Gatchina) and Zaraisk schools, as well as at the Petrograd school of aeronauts. In 1919, a school of aviation mechanics was relocated to Moscow from Kyiv, a school of pilot-observers was opened here (both were transferred to Petrograd in 1921), and a higher aerial photogrammetric school began to operate (in 1920 it was transformed into a school of aviation special services). In Sept. 1919, on the initiative of N. E. Zhukovsky, the Moscow Aviation College was established - the country's first educational institution for the training of engineering and technical. personnel for aviation (in 1920 it was transformed into the N. E. Zhukovsky Institute of Engineers of the Red Air Fleet). In total, during the war years, 292 specialists were trained for the RKKVF, including 155 pilots, 75 observer pilots, and 62 aeronauts. The training of minders was carried out at courses at front-line aircraft fleets. In 1919, by order of the RVSR, reserves of aviation specialists (27 permanent and 350 variable personnel) were created in the Moscow Military District, on the North Caucasian and Southern Fronts to replenish the active units of the RKKVF.

The creation of the RKKVF, which had a strong core of personnel, a single system of recruitment and supply, a stable and uniform organization, and centralized management, was completed in the spring of 1919. In August. This year, only in the active army there were 146 aviation units and institutions, including 4 field aviation and aeronautics departments of the fronts and 16 army departments, 67 squadrons, a division of heavy airships, 3 special-purpose aviation units, a special-purpose group. They were armed with about 350 aircraft. 28 aeronautical detachments and 5 aeronautical divisions were formed. The total staff strength of the RKKV personnel was 22,974 people, including 9,006 in land aviation, 5,190 in aeronautical units, and 8,778 in repair and supply bodies. In naval aviation, there were 2904 people. Subsequently, the combat strength of aviation was maintained at approximately the same level. Most of the units were attached to the combined arms armies. At the disposal of Ch. command were the Ilya Muromets airship division and 3-6 squadrons.

Separate detachment of the RKKVF- the initial basic unit of the formation of the RKKVF, which was a military unit with an independent economy. At the head of a separate detachment of the RKKVF was a Council consisting of a military leader and two military commissars. He had a small headquarters and an inspectorate.

• Floating air base "Amur" (68th separate river aviation detachment) RKKVF;

Aircraft fleet and aviation industry of the republic

During the Civil War

Of particular difficulty in the construction of the RKKVF was its equipping with aircraft and various technical equipment. Initially, aircraft of the old army (over 1300 aircraft of various brands) were used to create aviation detachments. Measures were taken to release new aircraft. By October 1917, the Russian Empire had 18 aviation (11 aircraft, 5 engine, 2 propeller) and several mixed factories, but many of them ended up in the hands of the White Army and interventionists. Therefore, the production of aircraft and engines was established only in Moscow (Dux, formerly F. E. Moska, Ikar, aerotechnical) and Petrograd (Russian-Baltic, formerly V. A. Lebedev and S. S. Shchetinkin) factories. To manage these plants in Dec. In 1918, the Main Directorate of United Aviation Plants (Glavkoavia) was formed as part of the Supreme Council of National Economy.

In 1918-20, the country's aviation industry produced over 650 aircraft, and captured aircraft were also used (over 250 aircraft). In total, during the war years, the RKKVF had about 2,300 aircraft, of which about 300 remained in service by the end of the war. An important role in the construction of the RKKVF was played by the 2nd (June 1918), 3rd (March 1919) and 4th (June - July 1921) All-Russian congresses of workers in aviation and aeronautics, which discussed the development of the aviation industry, science and technology, the training of flight and technical personnel, improving the organizational structure of the RKKVF and methods of its combat use.

Awards

For high combat qualities, 219 pilots and pilot-observers were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 16 of them were awarded this award twice, and P. Kh. Mezheraup, Ya. N. Moiseev and E. M. Ukhin - three times. The 1st Fighter Aviation Battalion, 35th Reconnaissance, 51st Heavy Bomber Aviation and 9th Aeronautical Squadrons were awarded the Honorary Revolutionary Red Banners. On the combat operations of the RKKVF and its tasks in battles and operations, see Art. Military aviation, Aeronautics.

Literature

• Civil war and military intervention in the USSR. Encyclopedia. M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1983.
• Berezin P.F. Red aviation in the fight against the White Poles. - M.: Military Publishing House of NKO USSR, 1940. - 88 p.

Links

• Photo album of pilot-observer F.S. Hot photographs of the early history of the Red Army Air Force: photographs of aircraft of various types, pilots and technicians, airfields, aerial photographs.

see also

What was the Workers 'and Peasants' Air Fleet of the Land of Soviets at the early stage of the Civil War? Judging by the document entitled "Information of the People's Commissariat for Military Affairs on the Composition of Troops No. 997", by the end of August 1918, there were only 123 airplanes in the RKKVF (see table). It can be seen from the table that the People's Commissariat of War took into account only aircraft deployed along the western border of the RSFSR and in the north. For some reason, detachments that have already fought on the Volga and the Urals, as well as flight schools, air depots and air fleets, are absent. Perhaps the people's commissariat did not have all the information, but most likely only those detachments that could be considered as ready-made reserves for the front were included in the "Information".

BATTLE COMPOSITION

* This was the name given to operational military formations stationed along the demarcation line between Russian territory and the zone of German-Austrian occupation established under the terms of the Brest Peace.

According to updated data, in September 1918, there were 266 serviceable and 59 defective airplanes in the RKKVF air squadrons. In addition, there were 169 serviceable aircraft in the central warehouses and air parks. Thus, excluding aircraft factories and flight schools, the Red Air Fleet had 435 combat-ready aircraft.

At the same time, there was a serious shortage of flight personnel. By October, there were only 269 pilots and 59 letnabs in Soviet aviation. And even those, as a rule, did not inspire much confidence in the commissars. Almost 80% of pilots (of which 60% were commanders of detachments) and 100% of certified pilots were former officers royal army. Only a few of them went to the service of the Bolsheviks for some ideological reasons. Most did not think about politics at all, and got into the red aviation only because after the revolution one way or another ended up on Soviet territory. Dozens of squadrons, along with flight and ground personnel, went over to the Bolsheviks, as they say, "by inheritance."

With the advent of the white movement, the pilots of these detachments had the opportunity to choose, and many did not fail to take advantage of it. The result was a long series of flights to the side of the white armies. In 1918, on the Eastern and Southern fronts alone, at least 30 aviators deserted on their airplanes to the enemy. It was precisely such escapes, carefully concealed by official Soviet historiography, that were then the main source of casualties in the Red Air Fleet.

To combat this phenomenon, the commissars used proven means: intimidation and terror, including the notorious hostage system. On the other hand, back in the summer of 1918, a broad campaign was launched to Bolshevize flight schools. In August-September, purges of the Moscow and Yegoryevsk aviation schools took place, as a result of which 47 politically unreliable cadets were expelled. Schools began to accept only Bolsheviks with at least six months of experience or, as an exception, non-party workers with at least two recommendations from party members. As a result, by the end of the year, more than 80% of the accountants were communists.

But simultaneously with the growth of the “party stratum”, the level of training of pilots began to fall. Most experienced instructors and teachers did not want to serve the new regime or were "cleaned out" as class-alien elements. In their place came little-known, but "highly ideological" aviators from the soldiers. Flight training time has also been reduced. As a result, "early" half-educated pilots began to get to the front, for whom a rare landing did without accidents.

The experience of the first battles showed that the GUVVF was not capable of effectively directing the combat work of aviation on the fronts from its Moscow offices. During the Kazan operation, it was necessary to create a temporary air headquarters directly in the war zone. Soon, based on the results of his work, it was decided to organize a permanent command body that would perform the functions of the Aviakanets, which was disbanded in April. On September 20, by order No. 9 of the Commander-in-Chief of all the armed forces of the Republic, the Field Directorate of Aviation and Aeronautics of the Army in the Field (PUAiV or Aviadarm) is established. On September 22, A.V., already known to us, became its head and permanent leader. Sergeev.

In contrast to the Glavvozdukhovlot, which managed to grow and become bureaucratic, Aviadarm was conceived as a compact, operational and mobile headquarters structure. Initially, his staff consisted of only 12 people, including a courier and a typist. Everyone was accommodated in a railway car at the Aleksandrovsky (now Leningradsky) station in Moscow. The car was to be immediately sent to any sector of the front where a major military operation was planned.

By October 1918, Aviadarma had 88 detachments under its command. However, many of them were incomplete, and some even existed only “virtually”, on the pages of staff documents. Soon the Revolutionary Military Council carried out a deep reorganization of the structure of the air fleet. 27 units were disbanded. This made it possible to understaff the rest with people and equipment, creating 61 full-fledged squadrons of 6 aircraft.

This number was not chosen by chance. In accordance with the new structure, each rifle or cavalry division was assigned a reconnaissance air detachment, and each front a fighter division, consisting of three detachments. Thus, out of 61 detachments, 46 were declared reconnaissance (40 divisional and six reserve) and 12 - fighter (consolidated into four divisions, one each for the Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western fronts). The "geographical" names of the detachments were abolished (with the exception of specially assigned honorary names), and instead of them, simple number designations such as "1st reconnaissance", "2nd fighter", etc. were introduced. At the same time, the number of the detachment had to correspond to the number of the division to which the given unit was assigned (which, however, was not always respected).

In practice, this rather harmonious and seemingly logical system led to the fragmentation of the already few air forces and made it almost impossible for them to conduct any major independent operations. In such a situation, Aviadarm quickly found itself in the position of a general without an army. Instead of planning powerful airstrikes, the staff officers had to write circulars, write training manuals and deal with the daily routine, like sorting out pilots' complaints about their commanders or distributing scarce leather jackets among squads.

At the same time, somehow imperceptibly, the staff of Aviadarma swelled to 45, and then to 100 people. "Carriage romance" also quickly became a thing of the past. The aviation workers settled in a cozy mansion on Sadovo-Samotechnaya Street. But soon, from the starving Moscow, the staff officers were drawn to nature, and they occupied the former landowner's estate near Serpukhov for their needs. True, to the scale of the GUVVF, where already in November 1918 it was not known what 295 officials were doing (more than pilots on all fronts!), Aviadarmu was still far away.

Meanwhile, front-line detachments attached to divisions often found themselves subordinate to people who had no idea at all why aviation was needed at the front. For the most part, the pilots had to perform courier, delivery, or, at best, reconnaissance functions. As a rule, bombing and attack sorties were episodic and unsystematic, and no one even thought about a purposeful struggle for air supremacy. In addition, in such conditions, the supply became much more complicated. Often, aviators were forced to independently find ways to obtain fuel, spare parts, tools, and even uniforms.

By the middle of 1919, it became clear that the divisions were not able to work effectively with the squadrons assigned to them. Then began spontaneous process reassignment of aviation and aeronautical units to the headquarters of armies and fronts. This process dragged on until the end of the year, sometimes accompanied by confusion and confusion. Squadron commanders by no means always had an idea to whom they were currently subordinate and whose orders they were obliged to carry out. The army authorities also often did not know what air forces were at their disposal. Sometimes it came to oddities when relations between the infantry and aviation were built on the principle of "you - to me, I - to you." According to the memoirs of pilot Petrenko, commander of the 16th rifle division Kikvidze offered the aviators of the Southern Front a tank of gasoline and two barrels of alcohol recaptured from the Whites in exchange for a promise to bomb the Denikinists crossing the Khoper. They shook hands, and Petrenko personally dropped a two-pound bomb on the enemy. True, as he honestly admitted, he didn’t get into the crossing, but he caused quite a stir ...

Evidence of the underestimation of the role and importance of aviation in the Civil War was that until the beginning of 1919, the red air units did not receive any clothing or food supplies. Instead, each pilot was entitled to a salary of 300 rubles a month and the so-called "stray money" - 25 rubles for each hour of flight. In conditions of galloping inflation by the end of 1918, this money was practically worthless, and many aviators lived literally from hand to mouth. Only in the spring of 1919 did they begin to receive "food, welding, tea, tobacco, soap and cash allowances" according to the norms established for the command staff of the Red Army.

A separate discussion deserves the question of fuel. With the loss of the Baku and North Caucasian regions of oil production in the summer of 1918, Soviet Russia was left without sources of raw materials for the production of gasoline. Pre-revolutionary stocks quickly melted away, and already on September 8, a directive of the GUVVF appeared with the words: “2000 pounds of aviation gasoline remained in the Republic“...“. Reduce the consumption of gasoline to 40 pounds per month for a front-line detachment. In other words, the entire stock of aviation fuel in the RSFSR amounted to a little more than 32 tons, and front-line squadrons were asked to limit themselves to 640 kilograms of fuel per month (approximately as much was burned by one Ron aircraft engine in 20 hours of operation).

But by October, these remnants also ended. First, gasoline of the 2nd grade was used, then gasoline, heptane, then aviators began to invent various surrogates. The most widespread was the so-called Kazan mixture of brand "a", colloquially "kazanka", which consisted of kerosene, gasoline, alcohol and ether. On the barrels with this fuel, the inscription was always white: “shake when used,” since over time the liquid settled and heavier fractions precipitated.

Flying on the Kazanka, especially in cold weather, was associated with great risk. Slimy particles of sludge could at any moment clog the jets of carburetors, the engine stalled, and it’s good if this happened over its own territory, and there was a suitable landing area below.

In addition to "kazanka", a variety of alcohol mixtures were widely used, which bore the generalized nickname "aviacognac". As a rule, they consisted of ethyl and methyl alcohols, as well as sulfuric ether in various proportions. Rotary engines could also run on pure rectified alcohol, however, in winter, before starting it, they had to heat it up or pour a portion of ether into the carburetor. Pilots whose planes flew on alcohol usually took a flask of ether with them on the flight to quickly start the engine in case of a forced landing.

There was no particular shortage of alcohol fuel, since the distilleries that worked on local raw materials regularly drove their products. There is a known case when the commander of the 9th Army of the Southern Front, Knyagnitsky, having captured the Tsimlyansk winery, wrote off a tank of real cognac spirit to his pilots. And nothing, the motors have earned.

The memoirs of some aviators (A.K. Petrenko, A.K. Tumansky) say that when flying on alcohol surrogates, pilots of aircraft with a front engine often received poisoning by combustion products, which caused headache, weakness and dizziness. But, most likely, it’s not the “air cognac” as such that is to blame here, but the poor sealing of the hoods, in which exhaust gases were drawn into the cabin. In any case, having inhaled the “ordinary” gasoline burn, you can feel the same unpleasant symptoms with a guarantee. Another thing is benzene and toluene (the airport nickname is “mustard”), which were also, although very rarely, used as motor fuel. These liquids are much more poisonous than gasoline, alcohol or Kazan mixture, and when they were used, aviators could really get seriously poisoned.

Vapors of alcohol fuel, especially if ether was present in the mixture, sometimes had a narcotic effect on the pilots. So, according to the chief of aviation of the 11th Army Vinokurenko, on May 11, 1919, the military pilot of the 47th air squadron, after returning from a sortie to intercept enemy aircraft, “was in an almost insane state from intoxication with the fumes of the air mixture and was able to report only 10 minutes after the descent” .

But the main and widespread harm from ersatz fuel was that it led to a lack of power, premature wear of the engines, and often caused the engine to stop in flight. At the same time, each "gasoline substitute" harmed in its own way. The Kazan mixture formed hard-to-remove soot in the combustion chambers and on the cylinder valves. When working on alcohol, the motors were unstable at low speeds and easily overcooled in flight, while on benzene and toluene, on the contrary, they quickly overheated at high gas. And, finally, some particularly capricious engines (for example, Hispano-Suiza) generally refused to work on surrogates. Nevertheless, "kazanka", alcohol and "aviacognac" ensured the combat capability of the Red Air Fleet for more than a year and a half in the absence of normal fuel.

There was another important aspect to this story. On the one hand, the abundance of alcohol put aviation in a privileged position compared to other branches of the military, because with the inflation that prevailed in those years and the almost complete depreciation of money, anything could be exchanged for this “universal equivalent”. On the other hand, it quite naturally pushed the aviators to drunkenness with all the ensuing consequences. But this phenomenon was usually overlooked. In 1920, the Pomnachtab of Aviadarma, E.I. Tatarchenko, wrote literally the following: “The use of alcohol or any other drug is so widespread in aviation that it is difficult to fight this evil, because what is the harm from vodka for the health of a person who is watching every day death?"

They didn't even try to fight. On the contrary, a good mug of pure alcohol often served as a universal means of encouraging crews for daring flights and mechanics for shock work. And here are the words of the famous pilot, commander of the 1st Soviet air group I.U. Pavlova: “The only salvation from all diseases was alcohol. I do not remember in those days a medicine easier and more accessible. But the consequences of such "treatment" were often worse than the disease itself...

Pilot A.K. Tumansky recalled how the completely drunken crew of the Ilya Muromets flew instead of Mogilev ... to Bryansk, "missing" by almost 300 kilometers. There have been worse incidents. Only in 1918-1919, and only according to official data, 98 serious accidents and 34 accidents occurred in the Red Air Fleet. fatal caused by excessive recklessness or ridiculous pilot errors. No investigation of these incidents was carried out, so one can only guess if there are traces of the notorious "green serpent" here.

In fairness, it must be said that not only the red military soldiers were friends with vodka and alcohol, but also their enemies - the White Guards. Here is an excerpt from the order of the Chief of Aviation of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, General Tkachev: “March 15 this year. (1920. - Note. ed.) in Simferopol, a drunken fight broke out in the cabaret of the Petrogradskaya Hotel between a military pilot of the 1st air squad, Lieutenant M.I. Yanchenko and a military pilot of the 8th detachment, lieutenant S.N. Nazarevich. By order No. 59 of April 9, these pilots were removed from aviation. And two months later, Tkachev even had to issue a special order categorically forbidding pilots, under pain of being transferred to the infantry, to take to the air in a drunken state.

The most dangerous enemy of aviators during the Civil War was, oddly enough, their own planes. Catastrophes due to equipment failures ended dozens of times more lives of Red pilots than all the White Guards and interventionists combined. To explain this fact, a short technical digression is necessary. Aircraft of the beginning of the century differed from the current ones in their fundamental fragility. If now no one is surprised by cars that fly intensively for three to four decades, then for a plywood-linen apparatus during the Civil War, a year and a half was considered a very ancient age. The memoirs of the pilot Tumansky are indicative in this respect. Having received a brand new Nieuport 24 from the warehouse in the spring of 1919, already in October he condescendingly calls him "the old man."

Planes wore out extremely quickly. We have already spoken about the "hellish" fuel mixtures that corroded engines. But there were other, no less serious reasons. From the vibration of the motor and alternating loads, the tension of the braces weakened, which had to be tightened almost after each departure, the adhesive seams diverged, the canvas stretched and sagged, the nails in the frame loosened, the hinge joints loosened. In the end, the plane turned into the notorious "flying coffin", ready to fall apart in the air with any maneuver.

The poor condition of the hummocky field airfields and often "Spartan" storage conditions contributed a lot to this. Airplanes with a wooden power pack and percale skin were supposed to be stored only in hangars or in waterproof tents. In practice, only a few large air bases had hangars, and even the simplest sheds were far from always available at field camps. As a result, rain and slush could render the apparatus completely unusable in just two or three weeks.

In the West, this problem was solved by promptly replacing worn-out equipment, since the aircraft factories that worked at “machine-gun” speed made this possible. But in Soviet Russia the situation was quite different. The main raw material areas were cut off, and without Baku oil, Ural iron, Donetsk coal and Turkestan cotton, factories had to drastically reduce production.

An equally heavy blow to the aviation industry was dealt by its transfer to the jurisdiction of the All-Russian Council National economy(VSNKh), which was led by a certain Yu.M. Larin, who seriously considered aviation "a bourgeois excess, like lipstick and perfume factories." It got to the point that in the spring of 1918 a draft decree appeared on the transfer of all aircraft factories to the production of furniture! Only the desperate protests of the GUVVF and some leaders of the Red Army made it possible to cancel the stupid project.

But the attitude of the Supreme Council of National Economy towards the aircraft industry remained the same. By his decree of July 12, 1918, he attributed the “aeronautical apparatus factories” to the fourth category, that is, to the last one in terms of supplying fuel, electricity, raw materials and materials. Nevertheless, in 1918, the factories of Moscow and Petrograd, based mainly on the pre-revolutionary reserve, produced 255 aircraft and 79 engines (in 1917 - 1099 aircraft and 374 engines).

The next year, the situation worsened even more. From January to April 1919, most aircraft factories were idle due to lack of electricity. The number of workers decreased by 30-40%. Production then resumed, albeit on a much smaller scale. Despite the fact that the requirements for new products were significantly reduced (aircraft came from factories without checking compliance with technical specifications for materials and even without instruments that should have been taken from decommissioned aircraft), for the entire 1919 year, the production volume amounted to only 137 airplanes and 77 aircraft engines .

Only by the end of 1919, when the aviation industry was already "breathing its last", the Soviet government changed its attitude towards it. On December 22, the Main Directorate of Aircraft Factories (Glavkoavia) and its subordinate enterprises were transferred from the Supreme Economic Council to the Council military industry(Industrial Military Council). This meant, above all, improving the supply of raw materials and providing some benefits to workers (like improved rations).

In March 1920, the militarization provision was extended to aircraft factories, according to which all workers were declared mobilized and were required to obey military discipline. This was expressed in a ban on dismissals and criminal liability for unauthorized leaving work, being late and absenteeism. Finally, on June 16, aviation enterprises were equated with the “strike group of defense plants” in terms of the supply of fuel, raw materials and electricity.

But these belated measures brought almost no results. In 1920, only 166 aircraft were produced, that is, six times less than in 1917. A total of 558 airplanes were built during the years of the civil war in the RSFSR. This amount was not even enough to make up for the losses.

As a result, the red pilots again and again had to take to the skies on what in any other country would have long since received a well-deserved place in a landfill. A good illustration of the above is an excerpt from the memoirs of Colonel N. Kudryavtsev, who served in the 21st reconnaissance squadron in 1919: “When the plane (Farman-30. - Note. ed.) rolled into the tent, a small hillock turned up on his way. With a push, the tail farm suddenly broke, and the motor fell to the ground. It turned out that the bolts connecting the truss with the wings were worn out.

Already at an early stage of the Civil War, it became clear that the solid stock of aircraft inherited by the Bolsheviks from the old regime was melting before our very eyes. Then came the order of the head of the GUVVF Vorotnikov dated October 5, 1918, directed against the pilots who were trying to get new cars from the warehouses to replace worn ones, but still airworthy. “... I draw the attention of all pilots, and especially commanders, to the inadmissibility of such phenomena, for which I will continue to exact with all the severity of revolutionary discipline. I put everyone on notice that the republic is extremely poor by air and insufficient use of every aircraft, engine, pood of gasoline is a serious crime. An equally serious crime is the excessive demand for property to the front, which is why I propose that in the requirements we strictly comply with the need.

It is not clear what Comrade Vorotnikov considered "sufficient use" of aircraft. Obviously, what was regularly reported throughout the war by dry reports from airfields ( original spelling):

“- During takeoff on the Newport X aircraft, as a result of the surrender of the engine, the pilot fell and crashed to death. 4 socialist. neg. Kropinov.

- When returning from reconnaissance at an altitude of 900-1000 meters. the wings of the Maurice Farman aircraft were torn off and, in the fall, the pilot crashed to death. 35 Air Squad Trusov with observer Dmitriev.

- When landing on the plane "Farman XXX" due to engine interruptions and loss of speed, the pilot of the 18th corps fell and crashed. air squadron Simankov. He died from his severe wounds.

- When flying on the Swan apparatus, a wing came off in the air, as a result of which the pilot Sinitsa fell and crashed.

- During the loop, the wings of the Nieuport aircraft were torn off, which is why the pilot of the 13th Air Squadron Horalko crashed during the fall.

“During the flight on the Moran Parasol apparatus, the main spars of the fuselage on the gluing burst, as a result of which the apparatus fell and the pilot of the 22nd reconnaissance detachment Zhuravlev died in the fall ...”.

There are many more such examples, but fortunately, more typical was the situation when, after an accident, the aircraft had to be written off, while the pilot remained alive. As a result, by the beginning of 1919, the shortage of flight personnel in the RKKVF was replaced by a chronic shortage of airplanes. And by the autumn of that year, the pre-revolutionary storage reserves of aircraft equipment had completely dried up.

In order to somehow maintain the combat effectiveness of the detachments, the aircraft were continuously repaired. In 1919, 405 machines were overhauled at factories, in aircraft fleets and workshop trains. Much more was repaired directly at the airfields. To return to life long-used devices, mechanics and minders often performed miracles of ingenuity. Engines were “thrown” from one car to another, constantly breaking chassis were changed, and the skin was completely tightened. Replacing such "little things" as screws, wheels or tail crutches was not considered a repair at all. On the contrary, it was common to assemble two or three broken or completely dilapidated machines of one, “conditionally fit” for flying. At the same time, fragments of various modifications, supplemented with home-made parts and assemblies, could well be combined, as a result of which it is sometimes difficult even to determine the type of hybrid obtained. It happened that nothing remained of the original design of the aircraft, except for individual elements and a plate with a serial number. According to the figurative expression of A.V. Sergeeva, "then we sewed a coat to the button" ...

Let us dwell on the appearance of Soviet airplanes of that romantic era. At first it was exactly the same as before the revolution. The Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet (RKKVF), born in the spring of 1918 from the remnants of the tsarist aviation, inherited from it not only hundreds of aircraft, infrastructure and other property, but also insignia of nationality, as well as emblems of various units and divisions.

For more than six months after the revolution, all airplanes retained tricolor red-blue-white concentric circles ("cockades"), which were the identification marks of Russian aviation both under the tsar and under the provisional government. Since 1914, these circles have been compulsorily applied to the wings (for biplanes - from above, to the top and from below, to the bottom), as well as to the rudders of Russian-built aircraft. For aircraft received from abroad, the rudder was usually painted with vertical stripes in the colors of the Russian flag. Often, "cockades" were also painted on the sides of the fuselage behind the cockpit (for aircraft with a pulling propeller), or on the sides of the fuselage gondola (for two-seat airplanes with pusher propellers). Sometimes they were even found on wheel disks and stabilizer consoles.

The abolition of the tricolor national flag by the Bolsheviks and the introduction, instead of it, of a red flag with the letters of the RSFSR, at first did not affect the appearance of combat aircraft. And only the entry of red aviation into the Civil War made us pay attention to this issue. After all, on the planes of the white armies were the same identification marks, as in the Soviet. At first, the aviators solved the problem on their own. On many cars, the three-color circles were painted over with red paint, getting something like the Japanese emblems of the “rising sun”. This was most often encountered on the planes of the Ural-Siberian Front. Probably, the red pilots simply did not know that exactly the same identification mark was used by the Japanese military aviation. It is interesting that, judging by the photographs, on some machines only the tail “cockades” were repainted, while on the wings they remained the same. Sometimes the red circles had a white outline.

Looking ahead a little, we note that when in the spring of 1919 the Red Army captured more than a dozen German airplanes in Ukraine, abandoned German troops, black crosses on the tails and on the fuselages of these machines were also painted over with red circles, leaving the former emblems on the wings. Such "combined" identification marks were, in particular, on the LVG C.VI of the red military pilot F. Grab and on the DFW C.V of the pilot Tarasov.

On the Ilya Muromets heavy bombers, which were based in Lipetsk, not only the circles were painted over, but also the tricolor pennants depicted on the sides of the fuselages, turning them into elongated red triangles.

And the planes of the Kostroma air group that fought on the Northern Front had red circles on the wings supplemented with white images of "Adam's heads" (skull and crossbones). The same skulls, painted on a red background, stared with their empty eye sockets from the rudders.

Sometimes tricolor circles were painted over not with red (perhaps due to its absence), but with white or some other light paint, which looks pale gray in black and white photographs. This was done, in particular, in the Astrakhan air squadron and in the Yegoryevsk aviation school.

Meanwhile, most of the Soviet airplanes in the summer and autumn of 1918 continued to fly with the "old-mode" symbols.

The first documented fact of the appearance of five-pointed stars on RKKVF aircraft refers to the Kazan operation. But the stars were not red, but ... black! This is evidenced by the memoirs of Grigoriev, Chief of Aviation Staff of the Eastern Front, as well as materials from the then Soviet newspapers, where the expression “our black-star falcons” is found in relation to aviators.

It is difficult to say what caused this choice of color. Perhaps it was just the paint that was available or the black signs looked more contrasting against the background of wood and canvas sheathing. There is another version: judging by the photograph of the aircraft of the 1st Soviet Combat Air Group, taken during the battles near Kazan, black five-pointed stars were then painted on the tails of her Nieuports (the French cockades remained on the wings, with which these machines hit Russia). It is possible that the head of aviation of the Eastern Front, Jungmeister, liked the emblem, and therefore, on September 23, 1918, he issued an order: “In order to successfully fight and avoid annoying mistakes, I order all aviation units of the front to introduce the same distinctive signs: at the ends of the wings above and below, and also on the tail - a black five-pointed star on a white background. Any aircraft that does not have such signs will be fired upon.

However, since back in May 1918, not a black, but a red "Mars" star was approved as the official symbol of the Red Army, in the fall of that year, they decided to introduce the same symbol in aviation. This was first done in the 6th Army, which fought against the White Guards and interventionists in northern Russia. On September 29, an order was issued by the army headquarters, ordering to depict on all aircraft belonging to it, instead of the previous identification marks, "red stars on round white fields."

And on October 9, the Main Directorate of the Air Force issued Order No. 6, which read: “Immediately introduce the same decals at the ends of the wings above and below and on the tail of the aircraft to all aviation units. Distinguishing sign should be a five-pointed red star."

As you can see, the order is rather vague. From it it is not clear what, for example, is considered the "tail of the aircraft" - the rear fuselage or plumage. The exact shape, size and position of the signs have not been established. This gave a wide scope for improvisation. Each squadron decided for itself how the stars would look on its planes. Often they were drawn directly on top of the "royal cockades" or inscribed in a central white circle. Or the “cockade” was completely painted over with white paint, which is why the star also turned out to be depicted on a white circle, but of a larger size.

Sometimes the stars were drawn in a thin white or black border, to which was sometimes added an equally thin black circle inscribed in the center (this type of OZ was preserved in Soviet aviation until the late 1930s). Stars with expanding rays are also known, reminiscent of flowers with five petals, or "embossed" stars applied with paints of two shades, which made them seem convex.

In photographs of Civil War naval aircraft (both wheeled vehicles and flying boats), one can often see small five-pointed stars on a white circle surrounded by two wide red rings with a white gap between them. Such emblems were found in various units and on different fronts. This gives reason to assume that they were not the fruit of someone's local initiative, but were approved by order for the fleet. However, no such order has yet been found.

In the center of the star, sometimes a crossed hammer and plow were depicted with yellow or white paint, as on metal stars worn by Red Army soldiers on their headdresses (in 1924, in order to simplify and unify with the Soviet coat of arms, this composition was replaced by a hammer and sickle).

The order for the widespread introduction of "Mars" stars was sent to the air squadrons back in October - November 1918, but far from everywhere it was carried out quickly and rigorously. The aviators of the Eastern Front remained true to their black emblems for more than a year. True, there is evidence that sometimes they were painted not on a white, but on a red background. So, according to eyewitnesses, the Nieuport-17 fighter, which belonged to the commander of the 10th reconnaissance squadron, Kuznetsov, looked like.

In some parts, the circles were not changed to stars for a very prosaic reason - due to the lack of red paint. Other detachments simply did not want to give up their own "heraldry". This was especially true of the tails of fighter planes, where many pilots have been accustomed to depict squad emblems since the World War. Although this was a violation of the aforementioned order of the GUVVF, such a “liberty” was looked at through fingers in those days.

So, in the 1st Soviet air group, after the announcement of black stars as a single identification mark of the aviation of the Eastern Front, they began to draw the former personal emblem of the group commander I.U. as their own insignia. Pavlova - a feathered arrow bent by an arc and directed downwards. In the 1st detachment, the arrow was black on a white background, and in the second, it was white on a black one. In both cases, the arrows were depicted on the rudders, respectively, the stars of these aircraft were applied only to the wings.

The same applied to the 10th (the emblem is a white circle on a black background), the 11th (a comet with a white tail on a black background), the 12th (the rudder is painted with thin diagonal stripes of red and white), and the 13th ( black and red Buddhist emblem "yin-yang" on a white background) to the fighter detachments of the 4th air division of the RKKVF.

The rudders of the Nieuports of the 39th Iron Squadron were decorated with images of the globe wrapped in white ribbon. Perhaps the most "brutal" was the symbolism of the 18th reconnaissance detachment, formed on the basis of the Kostroma air group. As already mentioned, white skulls grinned on the tails of the aircraft of this group, they were also drawn over the red circles on the wings. When, instead of circles, the pilots were ordered to draw stars, they still left their gloomy symbols on the rudders, and also inscribed them, slightly reduced in size, in the center of the stars on the lower wing.

No less common was the application of detachment emblems on the sides of the fuselage. So, on all aircraft of the 27th RAO, a red arrow with a bird's wing was depicted. The emblem of the 3rd Corps Detachment (later the 4th Fighter Detachment) was a stylized head of an Indian dressed in feathers. Airplanes of the 13th reconnaissance "Kazan" detachment, nicknamed the "devil's dozen" for its number, carried various compositions with devils on their sides, and, judging by the photographs, not one of them was repeated. Obviously, the pilots who served in this detachment did not suffer from superstition.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that detachment emblems were by no means a ubiquitous phenomenon in the RKKVF. Most of the squadrons did not have their own graphic designations on the aircraft and completely dispensed with them.

Individual emblems of pilots deserve a separate discussion. The fashion for them originated in Russian aviation during the First World War and flourished during the civil war. It was especially common among fighters. The nature of the images that were located on the sides of the fuselages or on the tails of the aircraft depended only on the imagination of the customer and the talent of the performer (often combined in one person) and varied from primitive "graffiti" to genuine works of art. Separate examples of such creativity, which have come down to us thanks to unique photographic documents, are given as illustrations for this book.

It immediately attracts attention that among the images, the eerie “infernal” theme clearly predominates: witches, skeletons with braids, skulls, devils. True, most of them are depicted in a peculiar humorous manner and are not so much scary as funny. Perhaps in this way the pilots wanted to demonstrate their "coolness", recklessness and contempt for death, which constantly followed them on their heels.

In second place in terms of number are various "nudes" - images of half-naked and completely naked women. These frivolous pictures are a unique phenomenon in Soviet aviation and testify to the relaxed atmosphere that reigned in the RKKVF at an early stage of its existence. In the future, the military authorities and political authorities never allowed pilots to paint such "obscene" on their planes.

Slightly less common were realistic or caricatured images of animals and birds, and even more rarely - various inscriptions.

Interestingly, among the pilot emblems, the so-called revolutionary symbols (red flags, clenched fists, sickles, hammers, etc.), as well as caricatures of the "bourgeois" and the White Guards, are almost completely absent. There were practically no communist or revolutionary slogans (the only known exception was the Sopwith from the 3rd reconnaissance detachment with the inscription " May Day Labor"). All this once again testifies to the apathy of the majority of the pilots mobilized in the Red Air Fleet, but at the same time they are very far from the Bolshevik ideology.

The story about the colors of the RKKVF aircraft during the Civil War must begin with the fact that all of them can be divided into three large groups: aircraft built at Russian enterprises; cars received from abroad (the products of French factories prevailed among them), as well as airplanes captured as trophies from the interventionists and the White Guards (mainly of English production).

Regarding the last two categories, we can say that all these aircraft were painted according to the standards adopted in the producing countries. In Russia, they were not repainted, sometimes they did not even change their identification marks, since the colors of the English, French and Russian "cockades" were the same, only their sequence differed.

The most common type of aircraft in red aviation in 1918-1920 is the French Nieuport fighter of various modifications. In France, the vast majority of these aircraft until the autumn of 1917 were completely painted in silver dope mixed with aluminum powder. It was believed that the addition of aluminum pigment to the lacquer made the fabric sheathing more resistant to the damaging effects of ultraviolet sunlight and atmospheric moisture. The planes delivered to Russia were also painted. Sometimes there were Nieuports painted on top and sides in a two-tone green-brown camouflage. Later, a more complex five-color camouflage appeared, consisting of two shades of green, sand, dark brown and black. But such airplanes came to our country literally in single copies. Among the many photographs of the Red Army Nieuports from the time of the Civil War, only one shows an aircraft painted in this way.

French fighters "Recession" S-VII, which arrived in Russia shortly before the revolution, were light yellow. This coloration had a sheathing fabric coated with dope without the addition of aluminum pigment. The metal hoods and fuselage forward skin panels were also painted with a translucent yellow lacquer. Inter-wing struts were not painted on either the Nieuports or the Spuds.

The British aircraft Sopwith "One and a half rack", Sopwith "Snipe", Sopwith "Camel", "De Havilland" DH.9 and DH.9a, RAF SE.5, RAF RE.8, and also "Avro-504" entered service with the white armies ” were painted on top and sides in a green-brown protective color, which the British called PC 10 (Pigmented Cellulose Specification No. 10 - “pigmented cellulose of the 10th standard”). From below, these machines had a light yellow color of the dope-coated canvas, the same as that of the “slumps”. The aluminum hoods of the Camels, Snipes and One and a half racks were usually not painted (the paint did not adhere well to the metal), as well as the wooden struts between the wings.

More than one and a half hundred British airplanes captured by the Red Army in 1919-1920 on the fronts of the Civil War flew as part of the Red Air Fleet in their "native" colors. Only the English "cockades" were replaced with white circles, over which red stars were depicted (sometimes the stars were painted directly on the "cockades", without a white backing), and the rudders, which the British had painted in vertical red-white-blue stripes, were repainted in red, black or in a protective color. Sometimes stars or emblems of squadrons were painted on the rudders, as on the Sopvich "Snipe" fighter of the red military pilot G. Sapozhnikov.

On aircraft produced at Russian factories during the years of the First World War and the Civil War, two main types of painting were used. More precisely, one, since the second cannot be called coloring in the truest sense of the word. It consisted in covering the wooden and linen surfaces of the sheathing, modeled on the French Nieuports, with a transparent dope (a solution of celluloid in acetone), in which aluminum powder was previously mixed.

Depending on the amount of aluminum pigment in the lacquer and the fineness of its grinding, aircraft painted in this way appeared bright silver, dull silver, or silver gray. Inter-wing racks, hoods and metal parts of the skin were not painted. Aircraft built in 1916-1920 at Russia's largest Moscow aircraft plant Duks, Lebedev's Petrograd plant and a number of other enterprises were painted in a similar way.

The second method was even simpler and consisted of covering the aircraft with several layers of dope without any color pigment. From this, the white sheathing percale (chintz) acquired a characteristic sheen and a yellowish tint, which gradually darkened from long exposure to the sun. Wood and plywood also became shiny and slightly darker than their natural color. The lacquer coating gave the materials moisture resistance, and also provided additional strength and improved the tension of the canvas.

No protective and camouflage colors were used in Soviet aviation in those years. Exceptions, as already mentioned, were imported and captured cars that came to Russia already painted. Obviously, this simply was not necessary, given the relatively low intensity of combat operations in the air and the weak activity of enemy aircraft. Dampness and the mold it caused were a much more dangerous enemy for the Krasvoenlets than the few White Guard airplanes, which very rarely attempted to engage in battle or attack Soviet airfields. And to protect against this enemy, dope and silver was enough.

In conclusion, it is impossible not to talk about the weapons used by Soviet aviation in the Civil War. She inherited from earlier times a fair supply of aerial bombs of various calibers, from light five- and ten-pound ones to relatively heavy pood and two-pood ones. Heavier ammunition was not used, since the vast majority of aircraft, including the Ilya Muromets multi-engine bombers, were not equipped with bomb racks. Only a few captured British vehicles had bomb attachments under the fuselage, and everything had to be thrown manually from the Sopwiches, Nieuports, Voisins, Farmans and Spuds. Also, almost everywhere there were no bomb sights, and where they were, letnabs often did not know how to use them. The bombing was carried out "by eye", so there is no need to talk about any accuracy. Any successful hits can be explained by mere chance, and in fact there were much fewer of them than the pilots wrote in their reports.

In this regard, there was even a theory that the main task of aerial bombardment is to achieve psychological effect, demoralization of the enemy, and not inflicting real physical damage on him. In accordance with this theory, along with bombs, special metal arrows were widely used - pointed rods 10 - 20 cm long with longitudinal grooves in the tail section, which played the role of a stabilizer.

Arrows poured out of a special wooden box or simply from the bag to the accumulation of enemy manpower. Such an arrow, dropped from a great height, could theoretically pierce through the rider along with the horse, but the probability of hitting was much lower than when using fragmentation bombs or firing from a machine gun. However, the moral impact of the "steel rain", especially on the unstable and illiterate mass of soldiers from the mobilized peasants, was quite strong. Therefore, such a primitive weapon, which fell out of use on the fronts of the First World War as early as 1915, was used by the Red Aviation until the end of 1921.

In the summer of 1919, arrows were sometimes used for a kind of “mining” of roads. The fact is that when falling from a certain height, the arrow does not completely go into the ground. Its tail part 5–10 cm high remains above the surface, depending on the density of the soil. Roads "sown" in this way turned out to be almost impassable for the cavalry. Horses mutilated their hooves as they stepped on iron rods sticking out of the ground. The White Guard riders had to dismount and either pull them out, or, conversely, nail them to the end with whatever they had to hand. Needless to say, how much this reduced the pace of movement.

There was another, rarer type of arrows, the so-called "bombs" designed by V.L. Slesareva. The "bomb" was a teardrop-shaped lead weight the size of a finger, equipped with a tin stabilizer. Outwardly, it really looked like a small toy bomb. Such "toys" due to their weight even pierced the roofs of houses and deck boards of the Volga steamers. "Bombs" (possibly captured) were sometimes used by white aircraft.

Since a civil war is, first of all, a war of ideologies, both warring parties paid great attention to the distribution of propaganda leaflets and proclamations, nicknamed "literary bombs", in the ranks of the enemy. And aviation played an important role here. True, the effect of such a "weapon" is difficult to quantify, for desertion and defection to the side of the enemy were not uncommon among both the Whites and the Reds. It is impossible to establish at least approximately what role leaflets with the corresponding appeals dropped from airplanes played in this. In any case, not a single reliable episode is known when, after the release of the next portion of "paper", a sharp increase in the number of defectors was observed. Other factors were much more important, and first of all, the general situation at the front.

The dissemination of propaganda materials was often treated formally. Reported only for the weight or number of dropped leaflets, and their content was of no interest to anyone. As a result, sometimes it came to curiosities. According to the memoirs of A.V. Sergeev, pilots were sometimes forced to scatter outdated leaflets intended for other fronts or even printed in incomprehensible languages ​​“for show”!

White aviation had its own "quirks". For example, the propaganda services of the Kolchak and Denikin armies demanded that the pilots scatter over the cities ... bundles of Soviet banknotes. On each banknote there was a stamp with the words: "this money is invalid, the Bolsheviks are deceiving you." With the help of such naive methods, the Whites hoped to undermine the confidence of the population in the Soviet government.

AT recent times A number of newspaper and magazine publications appeared, where, without reference to sources, it is stated that the Red Aviation used chemical bombs in the Civil War. We can say with confidence that this is a fantasy of authors who are passionate about exposing the real and imaginary "horrors of Bolshevism."

However, at the end of 1916, such ammunition was indeed adopted by the tsarist aviation and was even used for a short time on the Russian-German front. Documents of the time referred to them as "asphyxiating gas bombs", which suggests that they were simply cylinders of compressed chlorine or chloropicrin and a small explosive charge. But the extremely low efficiency forced them to abandon their use after a few months. During the explosion, the then chemical bomb formed a small gas cloud, which was quickly dispersed by the wind, losing its concentration. In addition, these bombs were notable for their low reliability and often leaked gas, which is why the pilots were afraid to take them with them on a flight. It should be noted that more reliable and deadly aerial bombs with mustard gas were used on the Western Front, but they were not yet in Russia.

By the time of the October Revolution, a small stock of gas bombs remained in warehouses in the frontline zone, but when the Russian army left Bessarabia, Ukraine and Belarus, it was partially destroyed, partially captured by the Germans.

In addition, there is no evidence that the Bolsheviks resumed the production of chemical munitions in 1918-1920, and the point here is not so much in moral as in purely practical considerations. By the way, unlike the communists, the British interventionists near Petrozavodsk actually used chemical bombs, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

Machine guns of various systems were used as small arms. The Nieuports were most often equipped with non-synchronous Lewis or Colts, fixed on racks above the upper wing. Such an installation completely excluded the possibility of shooting through your own propeller, which was by no means always guaranteed by the then primitive synchronizers. But the difficulty of aiming (the line of fire did not coincide with the line of sight) and the difficulty of reloading, combined with a small ammunition load (only 47 or 96 rounds in a disk store), gave very little chance of success in air combat.

There were much fewer Nieuports and Spuds with Vickers synchronous machine guns, but almost all air victories in the Civil War were won on these machines. And the two-machine-gun Nieuports with synchronous Vickers and overwing Lewis at the same time were a very rare occurrence. On the other hand, completely unarmed Nieuports often served in reconnaissance squadrons.

Double "Farmans", "Sopvichi", "Voisins" and "Kodrons" also often flew without machine guns. Since white aviation was small on all fronts, and fighters were even rarer, the risk of an attack by an air enemy was minimal. In the rear cockpits of the Sopwiches, Swans and Anasals, turrets or pivots were usually mounted with Lewises (including infantry models), less often with Colts, Hotchkiss or Madsen. On some Sopwiths, as well as captured De Havillands, Arieites and Breguets, combined weapons from synchronous Vickers and Lewis turrets were used. Most of the German and Austrian captured vehicles were armed in a similar way.

Table of contents:
1. Workers 'and Peasants' Red Air Fleet
2. Management of the RKKVF
3. Research institutions
4. Aircraft fleet and aviation industry of the republic
5. Awards

an auxiliary branch of the Red Army, formed during the Civil War. Main tasks: combating enemy aircraft, reconnaissance, air support for ground forces. Historically, the RKKVF was divided into aviation and aeronautics.

History of creation

As a result of the end of the First World War, the demobilization of the air fleet of the tsarist army in the Soviet Republic, 33 squadrons were retained, concentrated in the regions of Petrograd and Moscow.

The first Red Guard squadron was created at the Commandant airfield in Petrograd on October 28, 1917, to fight the troops of Kerensky and Krasnov. In the future, on the instructions of the Petrograd and Moscow Military Revolutionary Committee, the formation of other squadrons begins: "Socialist", "Revolutionary", "Red".

Aviation in the Soviet Armed Forces began to form in 1918, organizationally consisted of separate aviation detachments that were part of the district Air Fleet Directorates, which in September 1918 were reorganized into front and army field aviation and aeronautics directorates at the headquarters of the fronts and combined arms armies. In June 1920, the field administrations were reorganized into the headquarters of the air fleets with direct subordination to the commanders of the fronts and armies. After the Civil War of 1917-1923, the air forces of the fronts became part of the military districts. In 1924, the aviation squadrons of the Air Forces of the military districts were consolidated into homogeneous aviation squadrons, which were transformed into aviation brigades at the end of the 1920s. In 1938-1939, the aviation of the military districts was transferred from a brigade to a regimental and divisional organization. The aviation regiment became the main tactical unit. Aviation of the Red Army, based on the main property of aviation - the ability to deliver fast and powerful air strikes to the enemy over long distances that are not available to other branches of the military. The combat means of aviation were aircraft armed with high-explosive, fragmentation and incendiary bombs, cannons and machine guns. Aviation possessed, at that time, high speed flight, the ability to easily overcome the enemy's battle front and penetrate deep into his rear. Combat aviation was used to defeat manpower and technical means enemy; to destroy its aircraft and destroy important objects: railway junctions, military industry enterprises, communication centers, roads, etc. reconnaissance aviation had as its purpose the conduct of aerial reconnaissance behind enemy lines. Auxiliary aviation was used to correct artillery fire, to communicate and monitor the battlefield, to transport the sick and wounded in need of urgent medical attention to the rear, and for the urgent transportation of military cargo. In addition, aviation was used to transport troops, weapons and other means of combat over long distances. The basic unit of aviation was the aviation regiment. The regiment consisted of aviation squadrons. The air squadron consisted of units.

February 25, 1941 Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR "On the reorganization aviation forces Red Army".

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the aviation of the military districts consisted of separate bomber, fighter, mixed aviation divisions and separate reconnaissance aviation regiments. In the autumn of 1942, the aviation regiments of all branches of aviation had 32 aircraft each, in the summer of 1943 the number of aircraft in the assault and fighter aviation regiments was increased to 40 aircraft.