Lend-Lease Helion & Company Europe@War: Lend-Lease and Soviet Aviation 1941–1945 Volume 2

This study details how Lend-Lease fighters, including Hurricane, Spitfire, P-40, Airacobra, and Kingcobra, shaped Soviet air power and tactics on the Eastern Front.

The second volume of this four-part series explores in detail the Lend-Lease fighter aircraft supplied to the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Drawing on Soviet archives, Allied records, and first-hand accounts, aviation historian Vladimir Kotelnikov provides the most comprehensive study to date of the British and American fighters that flew on the Eastern Front.

The volume covers the deployment and operational use of the British Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire, alongside American aircraft including the Curtiss P-40, Bell P-39 Airacobra, and later the P-63 Kingcobra. Kotelnikov examines the numbers delivered, the routes by which they reached the Soviet Union, and the combat units to which they were assigned. He describes the training and retraining of Soviet pilots, the adaptation of tactics to the characteristics of each design, and the logistical challenges of maintaining foreign-built aircraft in frontline conditions.

Soviet evaluations of the aircraft are presented in detail, from the rugged P-39, prized for its heavy armament and low-altitude performance, to the Hurricane, whose obsolescence became painfully clear in combat, and the Spitfire, admired for its handling yet limited in Soviet service. First-hand combat reports and pilot testimonies bring these assessments vividly to life, showing how Western fighters fared against the Luftwaffe in the unforgiving skies of the Eastern Front.

Illustrated with colour profiles, hundreds of rare photographs, original documents, and technical tables, this volume provides a richly detailed portrait of how Lend-Lease fighters contributed to Soviet air power. It shows not only their operational impact but also how their service influenced Soviet thinking about aircraft design and doctrine in the years that followed.