At the end of November 1937 was approved by the Committee of defense of the Council of people's commissars of the USSR, a new mobilisation plan of the Workers 'and peasants' red army for the period of 1938 to 1942. The most tangible result of the new plan was an increase of the war strength of the army by more than 20 %, to 6.5 million soldiers. To achieve this, it was decided to both increase the number of units of the peace and state of war, so a total reorganization of certain kinds of troops, especially tank units and the air force. At the same time, accepted the basic organizational change at the highest level, the allocation of a separate people's commissariat of the navy and the transfer of marine aviation units within its purview.
According to the fundraising plan should be the existing aviation brigade, consisting of squadrons of dozens of machines, renamed the air corps and the reorganization of the original squadrons should rise to a new aviation brigade, subordinate to those the new air corps. Sometime between November 1937 and march 1938, however, a change has occurred, probably due to achieve terminological consistency. Place new air brigades were formed of air regiments, re-organized into air brigades.
This fact has created a rather confused situation, as the aviation brigade, existing in the spring of 1938, had little to do with aviation brigades, existing since the spring of 1938. Original aviation brigade, which have evolved since the end of the twenties and gradually they were once or several times renumbered, with the spring either in part transformed, or were completely dissolved. The transformation depended on the type of brigade, and on the original composition.
In general it can be said that the original aviation brigade were formed jednodruhovými squadrons, while the number of aircraft in them differed according to the type of the air force. Fighter squadrons and a light bomber squadrons were formed three sections (the command aircraft and three swarms of three aeroplanes) and command the machine, i.e. the 31 fighting machines. Heavy bomber squadrons were formed of 12 to 15 bombardovacími aircraft. The new organization, which is introduced from the spring of 1938, creating a single aviation regiments of five squadrons (12 to 15 aircraft).
Most of the original heavy bomber aviation brigades was at the beginning of 1938, consists of four heavy bombardovacími squadrons, one long-distance reconnaissance squadron and one fighter squadron. In total, therefore, was available to less than 50 bomber, 12 to 15 exploration and over 30 fighter planes. In contrast, the fighter or light bomber brigade were formed three to four squadrons of the relevant type, and each of them had over 30 aircraft.
Just the numbers of aircraft and pilots were for the transformation of the organizational structures determines. The original heavy bomber aviation brigade were converted into air regiments, while for the formation of five new plukovních squadrons were used in the original heavy bomber and reconnaissance squadron. The original fighter squadrons of these brigades were singled out and became the foundation of the new fighter air regiments. In contrast with the original fighter aviation brigade and light bomber aviation brigade have been cancelled, and their squadron became the basis of the new fighter air regiments or light bomber air regiments. If the original squadron was at full strength with experienced pilots, became the basis of a new aviation regiment, supplemented by other aircraft and pilots directly from flight schools. If the squadrons were not at full strength, were new air regiments created by the merger of two or three of these squadrons.
The situation is still complicated by the fact that the beginning of the year 1938 began the mass deployment of bomber command the air force. The number of heavy bombers TB-3 has been curbed in favor of the emergence of long-distance bomber units with the aircraft DB-3. Similarly, the number of light bombers, R-5 has been curbed in favor of the emergence of a fast bomber aviation regiments with planes of SB, at the same time then was a part of the units with the machines of the R-5 reorganized on the attack air regiments with machine R-From. Some changes to the original units for remote and fast bomber regiments have been carried out in the spring of 1938, some up in the course of the year 1938, and some only in 1939. Therefore, the newly allocated number of air regiments even during the summer and autumn of 1938 changed, also some newly created heavy bomber air regiments were in the period 1938/1939 renamed on the remote bomber air regiments.
All these changes give rise to confusion in the professional and popular literature, whose reason is both a misunderstanding of the method of reorganization, and the inertia of the entries in the archive documents. For each air unit from the years 1938 and 1939 should therefore be approached individually, because to stabilize the ratios occurred only after the end of the soviet-Finnish war.
And to make it claims about the stabilization of the ratios should also have some devil's hoof, it is necessary to remember that from the summer of 1940 was passed to the soviet air force from the brigadier of the organization at the division, and that the numbers of divisions in a few cases even during the autumn of 1940 at least once changed..
According to the fundraising plan should be the existing aviation brigade, consisting of squadrons of dozens of machines, renamed the air corps and the reorganization of the original squadrons should rise to a new aviation brigade, subordinate to those the new air corps. Sometime between November 1937 and march 1938, however, a change has occurred, probably due to achieve terminological consistency. Place new air brigades were formed of air regiments, re-organized into air brigades.
This fact has created a rather confused situation, as the aviation brigade, existing in the spring of 1938, had little to do with aviation brigades, existing since the spring of 1938. Original aviation brigade, which have evolved since the end of the twenties and gradually they were once or several times renumbered, with the spring either in part transformed, or were completely dissolved. The transformation depended on the type of brigade, and on the original composition.
In general it can be said that the original aviation brigade were formed jednodruhovými squadrons, while the number of aircraft in them differed according to the type of the air force. Fighter squadrons and a light bomber squadrons were formed three sections (the command aircraft and three swarms of three aeroplanes) and command the machine, i.e. the 31 fighting machines. Heavy bomber squadrons were formed of 12 to 15 bombardovacími aircraft. The new organization, which is introduced from the spring of 1938, creating a single aviation regiments of five squadrons (12 to 15 aircraft).
Most of the original heavy bomber aviation brigades was at the beginning of 1938, consists of four heavy bombardovacími squadrons, one long-distance reconnaissance squadron and one fighter squadron. In total, therefore, was available to less than 50 bomber, 12 to 15 exploration and over 30 fighter planes. In contrast, the fighter or light bomber brigade were formed three to four squadrons of the relevant type, and each of them had over 30 aircraft.
Just the numbers of aircraft and pilots were for the transformation of the organizational structures determines. The original heavy bomber aviation brigade were converted into air regiments, while for the formation of five new plukovních squadrons were used in the original heavy bomber and reconnaissance squadron. The original fighter squadrons of these brigades were singled out and became the foundation of the new fighter air regiments. In contrast with the original fighter aviation brigade and light bomber aviation brigade have been cancelled, and their squadron became the basis of the new fighter air regiments or light bomber air regiments. If the original squadron was at full strength with experienced pilots, became the basis of a new aviation regiment, supplemented by other aircraft and pilots directly from flight schools. If the squadrons were not at full strength, were new air regiments created by the merger of two or three of these squadrons.
The situation is still complicated by the fact that the beginning of the year 1938 began the mass deployment of bomber command the air force. The number of heavy bombers TB-3 has been curbed in favor of the emergence of long-distance bomber units with the aircraft DB-3. Similarly, the number of light bombers, R-5 has been curbed in favor of the emergence of a fast bomber aviation regiments with planes of SB, at the same time then was a part of the units with the machines of the R-5 reorganized on the attack air regiments with machine R-From. Some changes to the original units for remote and fast bomber regiments have been carried out in the spring of 1938, some up in the course of the year 1938, and some only in 1939. Therefore, the newly allocated number of air regiments even during the summer and autumn of 1938 changed, also some newly created heavy bomber air regiments were in the period 1938/1939 renamed on the remote bomber air regiments.
All these changes give rise to confusion in the professional and popular literature, whose reason is both a misunderstanding of the method of reorganization, and the inertia of the entries in the archive documents. For each air unit from the years 1938 and 1939 should therefore be approached individually, because to stabilize the ratios occurred only after the end of the soviet-Finnish war.
And to make it claims about the stabilization of the ratios should also have some devil's hoof, it is necessary to remember that from the summer of 1940 was passed to the soviet air force from the brigadier of the organization at the division, and that the numbers of divisions in a few cases even during the autumn of 1940 at least once changed..
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