The formation of the Air Force is actually a bit chaotic, mainly because various parts of the Air Force are still fighting at this time...
What urgently needs to be adapted are the three fronts that need to participate in the battle in the combat plan: the Southwest Front, the Stalingrad Front and the Southeast Front.
But as mentioned before, the Soviet Air Force is attached to the infantry, so these army aviation units are actually still performing certain tasks, such as reconnaissance, cooperating with ground air defense forces to protect traffic, etc.
However, the reform requires that these fighters, attack aircraft and bombers should be classified into different categories...Fighters are concentrated at this airport, attack aircraft go to that airport, etc.
During the mobilization of fighter planes, frontline operations and necessary air defense must also be ensured. For example, fighter planes must be used to patrol the airspace above the airport or at least a group of fighter planes must be on standby at the airport. Otherwise, the German Air Force will suddenly attack the airport and the airport will only be bombed.
Among them are command problems, supply problems, etc. Some commanders even discovered that they had no aircraft available after giving the order because they originally had bombers but they were transferred to other airports.
The reform headquarters was also a mess, everyone was busy, and there were beeps from radio stations and yells from phone calls everywhere.
"Things are not as simple as imagined!" Novikov handed Shulka a glass of Votka and said: "Although I had foreseen this, I didn't expect it to be so complicated! I'm a little worried about Germany.
People will take advantage of it!"
Shulka nodded in agreement.
The Soviet Air Force, which was being reformed and mobilized, was very weak. The Germans were focused on Stalingrad. In addition, they did not know that the Soviet Air Force was undergoing drastic reforms. Otherwise, they would abandon Stalingrad and deal with the Soviet Air Force first.
Shift strategic focus to Soviet airfields.
However, one principle on the battlefield is that you cannot place your hopes on the enemy at any time.
"We can't do this, Comrade Novikov!" Shulka took a sip of Votga. Although he had never liked drinking this stuff before, he might have been influenced by others, or perhaps it was the influence of others in the Soviet army at this time.
It was more difficult to find water than to find Wotka, so Shulka was able to drink a few small glasses.
"They are easily attacked when they move in chaos like this!" Shurka said: "At the same time, the command structure cannot adapt to this chaotic situation. Why don't we first reorganize a few aviation divisions on the second line and conduct necessary training, and then
Then move them to the front line to replace them?"
Novikov couldn't help but be stunned, and then nodded immediately and said: "Good idea, Shulka, you should have proposed this idea earlier!"
Shulka could only smile bitterly, so everything was too hasty. Not to mention other things, everyone in the command post, including Novikov, had not slept for several days.
Lie down on the table for a while.
Of course it would not be so carefully considered in this case.
Therefore, Novikov immediately ordered to stop the mobilization of the front-line air force, and even transferred the previous mobilization back to the original place... Fortunately, this kind of mobilization had just begun, and some of them had just conveyed the order and had not had time to implement it.
.
That is to say, all aviation units affiliated to the frontline armies have been restored to their original state, and the command system and maintenance departments are no exception.
Then, Novikov and his staff immediately organized several aviation divisions on the second line that were undergoing training.
It is much simpler to reform the second-line aviation divisions. They have almost no combat missions, and there is not much logistics, time and command pressure. They can be adjusted as much as they want, or even disbanded and reorganized without much problem.
So soon, the various aircraft types were classified into categories, and the logistics and maintenance departments were also classified according to the aircraft types and assigned to the corresponding airports, and then the command system was sorted out...
Sorting out the command system is a very interesting process.
The reason is that too many incompetent people have been mixed into the command system... This is a stubborn problem of the Soviet Air Force. The Air Force itself is a tall service. At the same time, the Soviet Air Force is also very large and filled with a large number of but backward old-fashioned fighters. This makes
The Air Force needs a large number of commanders.
More importantly, the Air Force, especially the Air Force Command, is usually on the second line and does not need to go directly to the battlefield... The Air Force needs to maintain a certain distance from the enemy. Of course, this distance cannot be within the range that the enemy's artillery can reach, nor can it be a one-time attack.
The distance that can be reached by assault requires at least a buffer zone of tens or even hundreds of kilometers, because the preparation time required for enemy fighters and bombers to make a sneak attack must be taken into account.
Therefore, in peacetime, the Air Force is particularly favored by the second generation of officers, many of whom even have no experience in flying fighter aircraft... They organize documents and convey orders in a certain level of staff department. After a few years, because of their
He was promoted through Air Force command experience.
This is also one of the reasons why the combat effectiveness of the Soviet Air Force in the early stages of the war was so poor: quite a few commanders could not even fly planes, and some even suffered from airsickness, but it was these people who could not fly planes who commanded the pilots to fight on the front line.
So it is conceivable that after the battle started, the orders conveyed to the pilots were not tactics, but just meaningless orders: "Go forward and destroy them!", "No retreat!" and so on.
If the war hadn't broken out, these people who were trying to fish in troubled waters could have continued to work in the Air Force.
This has resulted in a bloated, inefficient, and slow-responsive headquarters...and the Air Force is precisely the service that needs response speed the most.
Now their true colors are revealed.
Or it can be said that the reform gave them the opportunity to sort them out... Even if it entered a state of war before, even if it was known that those were incompetent people, it was still very difficult to kick them out, because the Soviet Air Force at that time needed so much
Multi-person command.
As Novikov said before, because aviation divisions are mixed, each aviation division needs at least three sub-command systems to command fighters, attack aircraft, and bombers respectively.
This kind of command system itself requires a lot of manpower and is complicated and cumbersome to command. If those incompetent people are driven out of the Air Force, it may cause the command system to completely shut down... There are no staff officers to communicate, organize files, and issue orders.
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But if these fighters are classified into categories, the command will be simplified to a great extent... An airport and an aviation division are all fighters or other types of aircraft, and the command system is all corresponding command talents.
Integrated into one set, a lot of redundancy of personnel instantly appears.
Therefore, Novikov can safely kick out those incompetent people in the Air Force command team.
In this way, although there are fewer commanding personnel, all of them are experienced in doing things, and the efficiency has been greatly improved. (To be continued)