Page 114 - The Chief Culprit

Soviet Airborne Assault Troops and eir Mission y 75

e 212th Air Assault Brigade, secretly transferred from the Far East, trained next to
Rodimtsev’s brigade in “conditions that were closer to actual battle conditions.” Rodimtsev
said its soldiers and commanders each had one hundred and sometimes even up to two
hundred jumps, while the commander, Colonel I. I. Zatevakhin had at least three hundred
jumps. 10
Rodimtsev’s account was mirrored in the memoirs of Colonel I. G. Starchak, titled
Battle from the Sky, and by General A. S. Zhadov, who in 1941 was a major general in com-
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mand of the 4th Air Assault Corps. Zhadov attested: “All brigade and corps formations
were manned with well-trained personnel, supplies, and weapons.” All five corps were in a
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state of full readiness for deployment.
e air assault corps quickly graduated from general battle preparations to very con-
crete ones. After June 13, 1941, the appropriate orders were issued and the final preparations
for war were completed. Tens of thousands of parachutes were folded for action in the loading
areas of the airbases. e air assault corps were issued powerful artillery and even battalions of
light amphibious tanks. All paratroop corps were stationed so close to the borders that they
could be deployed on enemy territory without additional regrouping. All corps conducted
intensive preparations for an impending landing. All corps were concentrated in the forests,
away from public view. e 4th and 5th Corps could, without regrouping, be used against
Germany, the 3rd against Romania. e 1st and 2nd Corps were to be dropped in Germany,
Romania, or in Czechoslovakia or Austria, in order to cut off the petroleum routes that ran
through the mountains from Romania to Germany.
On June 12, 1941, the Command Staff for Air Assault Troops was created in the Red
Army, with plans for an additional five air assault corps to be formed by August 1941. eir
creation was decided upon in May 1941. Aside from the five corps, five separate air assault
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brigades were also formed. Altogether, in the summer of 1941 Stalin had ten air assault corps
(three brigades each), six separate brigades, and several separate regiments.
Aside from the air assault corps, brigades, and regiments, a significant number of para-
chutist landing battalions were created as units included with the regular Soviet infantry.
Marshal Ivan Bagramian relates that in the beginning of 1941 the 55th Rifle Corps, which
was located close to the Romanian border, conducted intensive training for several parachut-
ist battalions.
In addition to parachute formations, several regular rifle divisions were also prepared
for transfer by air, in those days a radical shift in deployment of troops. On June 21, 1941,
the day before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, the Soviet army was practicing airborne of-
fensive operations, proof of how far they were from any defensive war strategy.
To deliver hundreds of thousands of paratroops the Red Army needed an air armada
of transport planes and gliders. Stalin understood this perfectly, which is why the parachute
craze of the 1930s was accompanied by a glider craze. Soviet gliders and gliding hobbyists
were up to world standards. By the beginning of World War II thirteen of the eighteen world
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records in gliding were held by the Soviet Union. e best Soviet warplane designers were
also busy designing gliders. e future creator of the first satellite, Sergei Korolev, was asked
to develop gliders.
e offensive military orientation of Soviet gliding was not disputable. Even before
Hitler came to power, the USSR had already created the first cargo glider, the G-63, designed
by B. Urlapov. en the USSR created heavy gliders, capable of carrying trucks. Designer