The biggest problem in air warfare is that the Soviet player can massively use aviation in 1941-1942 before the advent of air armies. At the beginning of the war, most of the Soviet aviation was subordinate to the field armies, and not to the fronts, as is done in the game. Therefore, Soviet aviation was used in small numbers and suffered huge losses. After the emergence of air armies, Soviet aviation gradually took over the air by 1944.
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Воздушная ... нной_войны
The main part of the Soviet military aviation, according to the views prevailing in the leadership of the NPO of the USSR and the command of the USSR Air Force, was considered as front-line aviation, which in wartime was subject to transfer under the command of the front, which laid the foundation for the dispersal of aviation efforts and made it difficult, if not impossible, to maneuver aviation forces between fronts. During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940), the emerging trend of dispersing aviation intensified: 49% of the entire aviation of the active army (Army Air Force) was transferred to the command of the combined arms armies, and another 36% of aviation remained subordinate to the front commander (Front Air Force). ). When summing up the results of this war, it was recognized as expedient tactical interaction with the troops of each army in the main direction in the Army Air Force, it was planned to allocate 2-3 air divisions of mixed composition, and in the Air Force of the armies in the secondary directions - one division each. The air force of the front should have been from 45 to 50% of all front-line aviation.[1]
By June 1941, organizationally, the Red Army Air Forces were divided into:
Long-range bomber aviation of the High Command, which could solve both independent tasks and act jointly with other branches of the Armed Forces
Frontal (district) aviation - Air Force of military districts (fronts), intended for joint combat operations with ground forces
Troop aviation - combined arms air force - corps squadrons at the disposal of rifle (mechanized and cavalry) corps and designed to correct artillery fire, aerial reconnaissance and communications.
Frontal (district) aviation was divided into two groups:
Army aviation, which was subordinate to the commander of the armies. The army had one, and sometimes two mixed air divisions, which consisted of two to three bomber regiments, two fighter regiments and one to two assault regiments.
The Frontal Aviation Group, which was led by the Commander of the Front (District) Troops through the Commander of the Air Force of the Front (District). The front (district) aviation group included one - two short-range bomber (bad), three - five fighter divisions (iad) and one or two mixed air divisions (garden).
The experience of combat operations in 1941-1942 showed[2] that the transfer of one or two divisions to each army leads to a dispersion of the Air Force's efforts, excludes centralized control and massive use of aviation in front-line operations. This made it impossible to realize in full the combat power of the aviation forces available in the fronts, since it made it impossible to concentrate front-line aviation in a short time in a decisive place to carry out the most important combat missions. At a time when part of the front-line aviation was conducting intense combat operations, the rest of the aviation, if not inactive, was engaged in secondary combat missions. The maneuver of aviation forces between the fronts was possible only with the permission of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, which took a lot of time and had a negative effect on efficiency.[1]
Therefore, a number of aviation commanders at the beginning of 1942 put forward the idea of creating large aviation associations. On April 3, 1942, the Commander of the Red Army Air Force, Colonel-General of Aviation P.F. Zhigarev, presented to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin a report “On the reorganization of the Red Army Air Force”, in which he proposed to concentrate the control of the entire aviation of the country in the hands of the Commander of the Red Army Air Force, who would teach tasks from the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command; five active aviation armies will be directly subordinate to it (each army must support the troops of several fronts), and in the fronts only reconnaissance, corrective and communication aviation will be left, which will be led by the aviation departments of the headquarters of the fronts and armies.[1]
As a result, in May 1942, changes were made to the organizational structure of Frontal Aviation: all aviation units and formations operating as part of armies and fronts were consolidated into one operational association - the air army. The first of these, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated May 5, 1942, was the 1st Air Army on the Western Front.[1]
In May - November 1942, 17 air armies were created on the basis of the air forces of the fronts and armies, in December 1944 - the 18th air army (long-range aviation).
The air armies of front-line aviation were part of the fronts and were subordinate to the commanders of the troops of the fronts, and in a special respect and when participating in air operations - to the commander of the Red Army Air Force. Sometimes some fronts operating in the most important directions had two VAs each. The new form of organization made it possible to centrally control all the aviation forces of the front, to maneuver widely within its boundaries, and to use large aviation forces where the situation required. The air armies had more opportunities to carry out operational tasks. But the creation of an air force on the principle of "one front - one air force" led to the fact that the capabilities of the Red Army Air Force command to carry out inter-frontal maneuvers by front-line aviation expanded slightly. By the end of 1942, a number of aviation chiefs proposed to continue the reorganization and transfer up to 90% of all front-line aviation to the direct subordination of the Supreme High Command Headquarters through the Air Force Commander, creating no more than 5 powerful air armies for the entire Soviet-German front, following the example of the Luftwaffe air fleets. But this was not done, instead of an inter-frontal maneuver in the Red Army Air Force, the reinforcement of the VA in the main directions by forces from the Stavka reserve was practiced.
