Searching for VVS Photos

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Bernard,
thank you for your remind.
Pity that the last version wasn't serialled, it was much nicer than the standard ones.
Regards
Massimo

[righidan]

Dear friends,
   In this period there are difficulties accessing historical information.   Mr. Linevich has started to post excellent quality photos and asked to repost them.   You can access the original site at https://www.facebook.com/DLinevich but I feel that it could be useful for all of us to repost his photos and translated text here.
  Therefore, I am beginning to translate and repost all the images, but of course, it will take a little time, but I will do my best to repost them all.
   The photos will appear followed by Mr. Linevich captions



"These photos, from a document that was thrown into waste paper from the Tupolev Design Bureau, are the original. My friend saved it and handed it over to me for scanning. This happened a year before the war.   Yes, I give, but without dropsy. Let someone rejoice, we all lack this now.   PS. The photos are symbolic, on September 17, 1939, the USSR invaded the territory of Poland and annexed its territories, in the photo is a captured Polish bomber PZL.37 Łoś.
The reason for the introduction of troops by the Soviet government is the following, quote -
<The Polish state and its government actually ceased to exist. Thus, the treaties concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be valid. Left to its own devices and left without leadership, Poland turned into a convenient field for all sorts of accidents and surprises that could pose a threat to the USSR. Therefore, having hitherto been neutral, the Soviet government cannot be more neutral about these facts, as well as about the defenseless position of the Ukrainian and Belarusian population. In view of this situation, the Soviet government ordered the High Command of the Red Army to order the troops to cross the border and take under their protection the lives and property of the population of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine.>"


"History of Ukraine Did you know that in the creation of the legendary fighter I16, a significant role belonged to Vsevolod Konstantinovich Tairov, head of the OKO of the Kiev aircraft plant No. 43?"

"In 1930, mass production of the most massive in the 30s of the USSR, passenger aircraft K5, began. The aircraft was created at the Kharkov Aviation Plant No. 135 by Konstantin Alekseevich Kalinin."

"In 1936, at the Kharkov Aviation Institute, under the leadership of the chief designer of plant No. 135, Iosif Grigoryevich Neman, an advanced for its time aircraft KhAI5 was created, which later became the most modern in the USSR, serial reconnaissance R10"
Regards
Daniele

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Daniele,
the photos of Psy are very welcome, thank you for having reposted them here.
I have not a Facebook account, I don't want it and so it would have been difficult for me to see and download them.
I-16 Type 4 are always rare and welcome. I like the sharp ones on the PZL-37 too, I have a pair of old kits still to build.
Regards
Massimo

[barneybolac]

EBAY image from some time back.

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi, after suggestion of Matthew Acred, I've seen some photos on Ebay:

Lagg-3 n.88
https://picclick.de/Orig-Foto-abgeschossenes-Jagdflugzeug-Detailaufnahme-2-WK-165431304999.html#&gid=1&pid=1

Described as a MiG, it seems more a P-39 instead.
https://picclick.de/1944-Original-Foto-Luftfoto-2Wk-Mig-1-3-Jagdflugzeug-314017091282.html#&gid=1&pid=2

I-153
https://picclick.de/141120-Photo-2wk-Abgeschossenes-Russisches-Flugzeug-154314057595.html#&gid=1&pid=1

tail of Li-2
https://picclick.de/1941-Foto-Focke-Heinkel-Junkers-Camo-Flugzeug-Luftwaffe-225014040300.html#&gid=1&pid=1

[warhawk]

A TB-3 with an enclosed cockpit:


source: German E-bay


source: German E-bay

[Massimo Tessitori]

Nice plane. It has other differences too, it's hard to convert the kit of ICM to obtain it.

[warhawk]

A crash-landed Yak-2:


source: German E-bay

[learstang]

A Yak-2 - now there's a rare bird. Thank you for posting!

Best Regards,

Jason

[Massimo Tessitori]

I suspect that they flew without the openable part of the canopy. No any photo shows it in open position.

[warhawk]

A very early Lagg:


source: German E-bay

[Massimo Tessitori]

Excellent photo.
I see that the plane is without the star on the tail, so it could be painted according to prewar standards.  I think to see some dishomogeneosity on the paint, so it could have some non standard low contrast camouflage, probably not black because the contrast with the black areas on the tail and spinner is evident, or perhaps just repaintings for maintenance.
Or perhaps, something vaguely similar to a star seems visible on the rudder. Maybe it is only a faded black-green camo with fresh black repaintings on the spinner and rudder.

[warhawk]

Maybe it is only a faded black-green camo with fresh black repaintings on the spinner and rudder.

Could be. Another possibility is a layer of dust from the wheels-up landing on a grass-less field (which somehow missed the vertical stabilizer).
What do You think about the code number - 408?

[Massimo Tessitori]

If I remember well, three digits numbers on the fuselage suggest the use on the southern front, perhaps Crimea or Donbass. There is a chapter on the articles of Timin with examples of other types; this is the first LaGG-3 I see with such numbering.

[righidan]

Dear Friends,
   Excellent and very rare photo.
   About the three digit number, as usual, the situation looks more complex than hoped, and I translate part of what Mr. Timin writes in M-Hobby, December 2018:

   An offshoot of the  numerical  systems have become three-digit numbers that originally appeared in the regiments of the 54th fighter air defense brigade of Leningrad (the 19th and 26th IAP) in the late thirties. The aircraft here had the following format numbers: 19th IAP-1xx, 26th IAP-2xx, and were applied exclusively to the fuselage of the aircraft, usually with white paint. Later, a similar system was introduced in the 60th Air Defense IAB of Baku. The allocation of aircraft to squadrons in the 26th IAP: 1st AE 201-220; 2nd AE 221-240; 3rd AE 241-260; 4th AE 261-280.
In addition to air defense units, similar numbering system had at least a few fighter regiments of the DVF air force, and, for example, the planes of the 6th and 60th IAP had number applied on the fuselage, and the 18th and 40th IAP on the tail. This, apparently, was another variation on the  numerical  system, and possibly, to some extent, the original version of such a system. The essence of this method of applying tactical numbers was as follows: the number of the squadron was applied to the fin, and the number of the aircraft in the squadron on the rudder, that was how the I-15bis of the 65th SHAP were marked.
   The next branch of the  numerical  system was  subsystem  application as tactical numbers of the last digits of the serial number of the aircraft. In particular, in the spring of 1941 was marked aircraft of the 154th, 155th and 156th IAP, 39th IAD.
   Summing up, I would like to note that the situation with the application of tactical numbers was very similar to the situation in the troops with the introduction of camouflage. Despite the seemingly accepted regulations, in practice it was carried out far from all parts and, as a rule, was introduced directly by the decision of the regimental commander, less often the division, which ultimately led to the diversity of the systems used. Moreover, even in the same part of the adopted system in the blink of an eye could change to another. For example, the above-mentioned 161th IAP, used on the I-16  color  system, but after the rearmament of the MiG-3 began to use the  numeric , and its version, when the tactical number was the last two digits of the serial number of the aircraft.

   Identifying the Squadron will not be easy, but Massimo is right: the next photo in the seller series shows road signs for Sebastopol and other Crimean towns.
Regards
Daniele