Hardesty, Von and Grinberg, Ilya. Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 387 any case, Finland was a side-feature of a wider bluff. After two more wars to try in vain to get its lost lands back, Finland had to settle for a recognition of its independence. This was more than the Baltic States were accorded. Sander’s work on the Winter War is to a significant degree a compendium both of Russian and Finnish material. In his treatment of the sleeplessness of both armies, the key is the lack of reserves. The utter weariness of the Finnish troops defending the last days in the Mannerheim Line as it began to break down makes Sander write in anger that the Finnish High Command would simply have done better had it taken the men out of the trenches. And while in general Sander is on the side of the Finns, there is plenty he finds critical in the behaviour of some of the Finnish brass. In particular, he notes that, in contrast to the situation in Moscow, the censorship authorities were antagonistic to foreign newsmen. As to newsmen, there were also newswomen. One was Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s girlfriend. Another was her friend, Virginia Cowles. Undoubtedly, theformerlady’sstatement,‘Ilikethosewhofight’,appliedtoherfriend’soutlook, too. In their reportage, they did not flinch. Gellhorn’s reporting had already been noted by Eleanor Roosevelt, but the President himself was not to be drawn into the battle, though his financial help for Finland raised a US loan (sic) from four million dollars to ten million dollars. With respect further to FDR, Sander has an interesting piece of news from the New York Times of 11 February 1940 when FDR was heckled by a student mob. Were the youngsters calling for Finland? No they were not: their voices rang for the Soviet Union. Sander could equally well have found such sentiments in Britain or France. TheburdenofthisworkisnonethelessoftheclumsyruthlessnessoftheSoviet system. If you were hesitant when the advance was on, the politruk might shoot you in the back. Of the 5,600 prisoners-of-war returned by Finland to Russia, 500 were executed in their homeland for voluntarily surrendering to the Finns. Others got hard labour. Turku George Maude Hardesty, Von and Grinberg, Ilya. Red Phoenix Rising: The Soviet Air Force in World War II. Modern War Studies. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 2012. xix + 428 pp. Illustrations. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $34.95. In 1982, Von Hardesty of the Smithsonian Institution produced Red Phoenix, a landmark study of the air war between Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. An excellent book in its own right, Red Phoenix proved all the more remarkable for its ability to penetrate the clouds of Soviet propaganda that surrounded SEER, 93, 2, APRIL 2015 388 its subject and to reconstruct that subject’s history without access to primary sources. Since the USSR’s collapse, archival revelations have transformed the Soviet-studies field, and several fine studies have dealt specifically with the aviation history of the Lenin and Stalin eras. But as a standard work on the Soviet-German air war, nothing written in English during the post-Soviet years managed to supersede Hardesty’s work. That is, not until the 2012 publication of Red Phoenix Rising, an updated and extensively revised version of Red Phoenix. Although Red Phoenix Rising retains the basic structure of the original, it is substantially longer and more lavishly illustrated. Its text has been fleshed out with more narrative vignettes and case-studies. Most important, Hardesty and his new co-author, Ilya Grinberg, have enlisted the aid of numerous Russian researchers, thereby incorporating a massive wealth of new facts and findings, all drawn from key archives. The end result has been to radically extend the academic usefulness of an important book that deserves a continued readership. The book’s title sums up its main story. Like the mythical bird it is compared to, the Soviet Air Force (VVS) arose from the ashes of near-destruction in the summer of 1941, gained strength during the titanic struggles of 1942–43, and used its fully-fledged might to wrest victory from the once-superior Luftwaffe in 1944–45. Seven chapters guide the reader through this tale. The first discusses the early days of Operation...