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1st Air Army

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(Redirected from 1st Air Army (Soviet Union)) For the Imperial Japanese 1st Air Army, see First Air Army (Japan).
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1st Air Army
ActiveMay 10, 1942 – January 10, 1949
July 1, 1957 – 1998
CountrySoviet Union
BranchAir Force
TypeAir Army
SizeSeveral
Part ofWestern Front
3rd Belarusian Front
Engagements
Commanders
Notable
commanders		T. F. Kucevalov (May–June 1942)
S. А. Khudyakov (June 1942 – May 1943)
М. М. Gromov (May 1943 – July 1944)
T. T. Khryukin (July 1944 – May 1945)
Military unit

The 1st Air Army (Russian: 1-я воздушная армия) was an Air Army in the Soviet Air Force which served during World War II. It was formed on May 10, 1942, within the Soviet Western Front, and renamed the 26th Air Army on January 10, 1949, in the Belorussian Military District.

After the war, it was reformed on July 1, 1957, and was active until 1998.

Second World War

When it was formed, the 1st Air Army was made up of two fighter aviation divisions (with four fighter aviation regiments each), two mixed aviation divisions (with two fighter aviation regiments, two assault aviation regiments and one bombing regiment each) a training aviation regiment, a long-range reconnaissance aviation regiment, a communications squadron, and a night close-range bombing aviation regiment.

Structure 1942

May 10, 1942:

  • 201st Fighter Aviation Division
  • 202nd Fighter Aviation Division
  • 203rd Fighter Aviation Division
  • 214th Assault Aviation Division
  • 215th Mixed Aviation Division

May 23, 1942:

  • 201st Fighter Aviation Division
  • 202nd Fighter Aviation Division
  • 203rd Fighter Aviation Division
  • 234th Fighter Aviation Division
  • 235th Fighter Aviation Division
  • 204th Bomber Aviation Division
  • 213th Night Bomber Aviation Division
  • 215th Mixed Aviation Division (later included the 894th Fighter Aviation Regiment in July 1942)
  • 214th Assault Aviation Division
  • 224th Assault Aviation Division
  • 231st Assault Aviation Division
  • 232nd Assault Aviation Division
  • 233rd Assault Aviation Division

From 22 February 1943 until May 1946, the 18th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment served with the 303rd Aviation Division (ru:303-я истребительная авиационная дивизия) of the Army.

In March 1943, the Air Army also included the French Normandie-Niemen squadron, which was later reorganized into a regiment. In 1942, the 1st Air Army fought alongside the troops of the Western Front, supporting them near Yukhnov, Gzhatsk and Rzhev. The Air Army later participated in the Rzhev-Sychevka, Rzhev-Vyazma, Oryol, Smolensk, Belarusian, Memel and East Prussian offensive operations.

In May 1945, the 1st Air Army comprised the:

  • 129th Fighter Aviation Division
  • 130th Fighter Aviation Division (Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad Oblast)
  • 303rd Fighter Aviation Division (Elblag, Poland)
  • 330th Fighter Aviation Division
  • 1st Guards Assault Aviation Division (Ketrzyn, Poland)
  • 182nd Assault Aviation Division
  • 277th Assault Aviation Division (Yudino, Kaliningrad Oblast)
  • 311th Assault Aviation Division
  • 6th Guards Bomber Aviation Division (Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad Oblast) (later a division of Military Transport Aviation)
  • 213th Night-Bomber Aviation Division (Paslek, Poland)
  • 276th Bomber Aviation Division
  • 1st Free French ('Normandie-Niemen') Fighter Aviation Regiment (Mamonovo, Kaliningrad Oblast)
  • 406th Night-Bomber Aviation Regiment
  • 10th independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment
  • 90th independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment
  • 142nd Transport Aviation Regiment
  • 117th independent Artillery Correction Regiment
  • 151st independent Artillery Correction Regiment
  • 1st Medical Aviation Regiment
  • 354th independent Communications Aviation Regiment
  • 1st independent Agitation Aviation Squadron
  • 33rd independent Communications Aviation Squadron
  • 203rd independent Communication Aviation Squadron

Throughout the war, the 1st Air Army made 290,000 sorties. Five of the Air Army's formations where reorganized as "Guards Units", 50 formations were given "honourable titles", 44 formations received various awards, 145 pilots and navigators received the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" and over 17,000 of its servicemen were also given various medals and decorations.

Command structure

Source: Militera.lib.ru Commanders:

Chiefs of Staff:

  • Major General (of Aviation) Aleksandr S. Pronin (5 May 1942 – 9 August 1944)
  • Major General (of Aviation) Ivan M. Belov (12 February – May, 1945)

Postwar

There were two Air Armies active by the end of the war in the Far East, the 9th and 10th Air Armies. In the early 1949 redesignations of the Soviet Air Forces, the 9th Air Army became 54th Air Army, the 10th Air Army became 29th Air Army in the Primorsky Military District. On 1 April 1957 the two were united as the 1st Special Far Eastern Air Army, and at some later point the designation was simplified purely to 1st Air Army.

On 30 April 1975 the Army was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

The army's order of battle c.1988 according to Vad777 and supplemented by Holm/Feskov et al. 2013 was:

In 1989 the 1st Air Army disbanded the headquarters of the 33rd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Division, and in 1994 the headquarters of the 303rd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Division.

The 1st Air Army was merged with the 11th Air Defence Army in 1998 to form the 11th Air and Air Defence Forces Army.

References

  1. Western Front. 1st Air Army Archived 2012-08-03 at archive.today (in Russian)
  2. 1st Air Army. Allaces.ru (in Russian)
  3. Commanders of the Soviet Air Force 1942—1945 www.soldat.ru (in Russian)
  4. ^ 1st Air Army victory.mil.ru Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine Russian Ministry of Defense (in Russian)
  5. www.mod.mil.by Archived 2007-10-28 at the Wayback Machine Belarusian Ministry of Defence
  6. "Хабаровские новости".
  7. http://www.soldat.ru/doc/nko/1942ss.html (in Russian)
  8. Michael Holm, 26th Air Army, accessed August 2011
  9. 17 of them received this title twice
  10. Commanders of the Soviet Air Force 1941—1945 http://militera.lib.ru (in Russian)
  11. ^ Holm 2013.
  12. Vad777, http://www8.brinkster.com/vad777/sssr-89-91/vvs/fa/1-dvo.htm Archived 2008-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
  13. "216th Fighter Aviation Regiment".
  14. "404th Fighter Aviation Regiment".
  15. "300th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment".
  16. "277th Bomber Aviation Regiment".
  17. Michael Holm, 18th Guards Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment, accessed 2012.
  18. "224th Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment".
  19. Michael Holm, 523rd Fighter-Bomber Aviation Regiment, accessed November 2012.
  20. "799th independent Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment".
  21. See for example Michael Holm, 33 ADIP
Soviet Air Force Air Armies
Air Armies 1942–1949
Additional Air Armies formed 1949–1992
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