Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II (Modern War Studies) [Hardcover]

Von Hardesty (Author), Ilya Grinberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2012 | Series: Modern War Studies

A groundbreaking account of the Soviet Air Force in World War II, the original version of this book, Red Phoenix, was hailed by the Washington Post as both “brilliant” and “monumental.” That version has now been completely overhauled in the wake of an avalanche of declassified Russian archival sources, combat documents, and statistical information made available in the past three decades. The result, Red Phoenix Rising, is nothing less than definitive.

The saga of the Soviet Air Force, one of the least chronicled aspects of the war, marked a transition from near annihilation in 1941 to the world’s largest operational-tactical air force four years later. Von Hardesty and Ilya Grinberg reveal the dynamic changes in tactics and operational art that allowed the VVS to bring about that remarkable transformation. Drawing upon a wider array of primary sources, well beyond the uncritical and ultra-patriotic Soviet memoirs underpinning the original version, this volume corrects, updates, and amplifies its predecessor. In the process, it challenges many “official” accounts and revises misconceptions promoted by scholars who relied heavily on German sources, thus enlarging our understanding of the brutal campaigns fought on the Eastern Front.

The authors describe the air campaigns as they unfolded, with full chapters devoted to the monumental victories at Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk. By combining the deeply affecting human drama of pilots, relentlessly confronted by lethal threats in the air and on the ground, with a rich technical understanding of complex military machines, they have produced a fast-paced, riveting look at the air war on the Eastern Front as it has never been seen before. They also address dilemmas faced by the Soviet Air Force in the immediate postwar era as it moved to adopt the new technology of long-range bombers, jet propulsion and nuclear arms.

Drawing heavily upon individual accounts down to the unit level, Hardesty and Grinberg greatly enhance our understanding of their story’s human dimension, while the book’s more than 100 photos, many never before seen in the West, vividly portray the high stakes and hardware of this dramatic tale. In sum, this is the definitive one-volume account of a vital but still underserved dimension of the war—surpassing its predecessor so decisively that no fan of that earlier work can afford to miss it.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Red Phoenix was in a class of its own when it was first published but limited by what could be known from Soviet sources. This new edition of a classic can now tell the story in full. For anyone who wants to know what contribution the Soviet Air Force made to the grueling victory over Axis forces on the Eastern Front there is no better guide. --Richard Overy, author of The Air War, 1939–1945

An impressive and long-awaited work that goes a long way towards filling one of the last major gaps in the historiography of the 1939–1945 air war. It should dominate the field for decades. --Richard R. Muller, author of The German Air War in Russia

About the Author

Von Hardesty is Curator of the Aeronautics Division at the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum. Ilya Grinberg is a professor in the Department of Technology at the State University of New York College at Buffalo.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas; First Edition edition (March 22, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700618287
• ISBN-13: 978-0700618286
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Worth Owning! May 2, 2012

By Michael H. Gorn

Format:Hardcover

Without the classic Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power, 1941-1945, the air war on the Eastern front in World War II would have been a lost story, at least in the English language. Since its publication thirty years ago by Smithsonian Institution Press, it has stood alone in recounting the remarkable resilience of the Soviet Air Force, from its virtual annihilation at the start, to its triumph at the end. It has been the standard reference for this often forgotten, underappreciated, yet decisively important struggle of the Second World War

Now original author Von Hardesty has teamed with Ilya Grinberg to produce a completely new edition of the book, slightly renamed Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II. But if the title is much the same, the story within is heavily revised, based on access to former Soviet sources unavailable to Dr. Hardesty when he wrote the previous edition.

To begin with, the new version--published by the University Press of Kansas in 2012--is a very attractive volume. From the jacket art (a beautiful painting of an Il-2 Shturmovik in action) to the page design (an easy-to-read, elegant typeface on buff paper) it looks worthy of a place of honor on the bookshelf.

Inside, the reader will find a book that does not so much depart from the 1982 Red Phoenix as it expands and elaborates on it. Not surprisingly, the new book is longer--by about 20 percent--than the old. Also, the new book has a more generous selection of illustrations than is common for academic publishers: 105 photos, nine maps and two tables (not clustered in galleries, thankfully, but scattered throughout the text and mated to the narrative). Its appendices show the benefit of access to government sources.... For instance, Appendix 14 in the initial volume ("Soviet Aces and Air Victories") is only half a page long and lists just eight pilots; the newer version, in Appendix 8 ("Top Fifty Soviet Aces") lists their victories, sorties, engagements, military units, years of birth and dates of death, all spread out on a seven-page table.

Every chapter benefits from the new archival sources, but the greatest beneficiaries appear to be Chapter 1 ("An Arduous Beginning"), Chapter 3 ("Stalingrad"), and Chapter 6 ("At Full Stride"). The reinforcement of these pivot points in the narrative--the devastation at the start, the turnaround at Stalingrad, and the eventual rise of the Soviet Air Force to one of the world's finest--illustrates the incredible strides made by the VVS under life and death conditions, in a desperately short period of time.

Likewise, there is new narrative in every chapter, and the overall style of the writing parallels that of the earlier volume in its clear, vigorous, and dramatic recounting of some of the greatest air battles in history.

Red Phoenix is a marvelous re-telling of one of the great turning points in the history of warfare. No history bibliophile, World War II enthusiast, or military historian--or for that matter, any self-respecting library--can afford to exclude it.

Michael H. Gorn
Research Associate
Smithsonian Institution
National Air and Space Museum Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Once more unto the breach... June 24, 2012

By Carl J. Bobrow

Format:Hardcover

RED PHOENIX RISING: THE SOVIET AIR FORCE IN WORLD WAR II
By Von Hardesty and Ilya Grinberg
ISBN 978-0-7006-1828-6

This review is based in part on an in-depth reading of the work and an opportunity to informally discuss the book with Ilya Grinberg, who is the co-author of this important volume. I'm pleased to have had a chance to speak with him whilst we were both attending a daylong symposium held at the National Air and Space Museum this past spring.

As the name of the title alludes to this is a story of near resurrection. Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes to take wing once again, the Soviet Air Force, decimated by the Nazi's at the outset of hostilities on 22 June 1941 finds its way back to preeminence. Struggling with internal politics, technological and operational hurdles along with the whims of Stalin they manage within 4 grueling hard fought years to wrest mastery of the skies from the Luftwaffe thus helping bring about the crushing defeat of the German war machine and the end of World War II.

The classic Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power, 1941-1945 which was subsequently translated into Russian during the time of "perestroika" (restructuring) and "glasnost" (openness) was used at USSR's Gagarin Air Force Academy. The thesis was sound and insightful making it the best available work on the subject, particularly for the Soviets at that time.

From time to time authors find it necessary to review their previous efforts and to bring them up to date with material that has come to light. In this case 30 years have passed and in that time the Soviet Union has become the Russian Federation and with that much has changed.... The access to archival material and censorship that restricted comprehensive research and publication is also different. It would seem that in the intervening years few "western" authors took up the subject perhaps because of the daunting task of language, resources or courage to undertake the effort required. Of course, there are a number of resident Russian historians who have made extensive use of this opportunity and yet there have been but a handful of American researchers doing the same. In 1988 I was one of those few western researchers given access to military archives, so I do have an idea about the plethora of material that is available.

I'm happy to state that Von Hardesty teamed-up with Ilya Grinberg to take if you will the "DNA of the Von's original classic" and create a new work. The book has made use of new material available, which has allowed the authors to reassess many of the previous findings and assumptions. It basically follows the same structure of the original; a big difference now is the personal narrative that appears in each of the chapters. This brings a perspective that enhances the overall effort as it complements the facts and analysis with the human side of the story.

My single detraction is more to do with the publisher, and the fact that they should have paid better attention to the publication quality of the photographs appearing throughout the book, such as those found in Carl Fredrick Geust's "Red Stars" series. There are a substantial number of new and previously unpublished images included bringing the reader the needed visual component. All the same it is the textual content composed from the myriad of archival documents, statistical data, scholarly Russian language works previously unavailable contained that are key to this new work.

Included in this edition are the all important appendices and bibliography is one of the best available in English language, so perhaps we will not have to wait too long for others to pick-up the gauntlet and start serious research on an area of history long overdue for additional in-depth histories. Read more ›

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting, but . . . July 13, 2012

By J. Mero

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a very interesting chronicle of the fortunes of the Soviet airforce during WW2, but focus is mostly on warfare, and not much on technology.
What I had hoped for was more in depth stories on how the Russian designers developed their airplanes, - design and technology.
Would also liked much more detail on all the difficulties the Russians faced, like when moving the production facilities from Moscow to beyond the Urals.
And on the designers' problems and ways to overcome these. Because that is really more the story about the Phoenix, - the genius of Petlyakov, Lavochkin, Yakovlev, and all the others. Designing planes manufactured and to be maintained by a largely unskilled workforce.
Planes to be operated under the worst imaginable conditions climate- and temperature-wise. So more about how the Russians overcame all this would have been of the greatest interest to me. Hopefully, with the access to Soviet archives, more information on all this will be forthcoming.

Other than that, the book is still a worthy contribution to any war library.

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointingly Bland April 20, 2013

By C. J. Riches

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Having read previous reviews, and the testimonies from Glant, Overy etc I started this book with great anticipation, only to become increasingly disappointed. The subject is huge, and is treated in a very bland manner. The content covers the general course of the war, which necessitates some information about the land events, and is illustrated with a few combat examples that don't really add much to the explanation of why the Soviet air force performed as it did. This aspect of the content takes up far too much of the text, and leaves little space devoted to the Soviet Air Force (per the title) itself. Where there is discussion on the operational/strategic capabilities and execution, again it is a chronology of events in limited detail, with little analysis. The content about air operations and strategy is not a lot more than a decent quality book about the eastern front as a whole.

I didn't learn very much from the book, and in particular virtually nothing about why the air force performed as it did at different phases, what it learned, what it did in response to the learnings, and how these were applied - surely the key cornerstone of a book titled as this one. I can't recommend it, and felt that I was reading a different book than the glowing comments in other reviews.