1. přelétavací letecká divize civilního letectví [1942-1945]

1st Overflight Air Division of the Civil Air Force

Formation of the division, its command and subordinate units called. Krasnoyarsk Air Route, began in early August 1942 at Ivanove in the 22nd Reserve Aviation Regiment 6. Reserve Aviation Brigade, with Yakutsk designated as the division's headquarters.

The division's mission was to fly American aircraft supplied to the USSR under the Lend-Lease contract along the so-called Krasnoyarsk Air Route, which consisted of five parts:

1) Fairbanks - Uelkal - 1,493 km. In American Alaska, the route led through the dense forests of the Yukon River Valley to the coastal town of Nome. It then continued across the Bering Strait into the Soviet Union and on through the arid tundra of eastern Chukotka;
2) Uelkal - Seimchan - 1,450 km - the route passed over areas of central Chukotka and the Kolyma Ridge;
3) Seimchan - Yakutsk - 1.167 km over the winter pole over vast mountain ranges with Verkhoyansky and Chersky ridges at high altitudes (flying using oxygen masks);
4) Yakutsk - Kirensk - 1.330 km over dense taiga;
5) Kirensk - Krasnoyarsk - 960 km. The route ran over continuous taiga, partly near the Lena River.

The method of so-called relay overflights was used, consisting in the fact that each of the overflying regiments overflew machines only in their own sector. The fighter aircraft were always flown in groups in a "wedge" formation headed by the so-called leader (see photo below). The leader was usually a bomber crewed by an experienced navigator and radio operator. Bombers and transport aircraft were generally flown singly, as their crews, unlike single-seat fighters, always included a navigator.

In the first three months of the division's existence (October-December 1942), 114 American aircraft were flown on the so-called Krasnoyarsk route. However, the pace was gradually accelerated, deficiencies in the organization were eliminated, thanks to which in January 1943 alone as many as 128 machines were flown. In the first half of 1943 it was 654, and for the whole year 1943 - 2.456 aircraft.

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 05.11.1944 the air division was awarded the Red Banner Order. This symbolic act clearly emphasized the enormous importance of this route for the combat capability of the Soviet Air Force. However, in post-war communist historiography, assistance within the Lend-Lease has already been downplayed and marginalised. Contemporary Russian historians, however, now openly admit that it was Allied material assistance that greatly helped the Soviet Union in the most difficult period of the early years of the war.

From 26.06.45, the division's regiments began to conduct overflights of combat and transport aircraft for the Zabaikal Front, the two Far Eastern fronts as well as for the Air Force of the Pacific Fleet.

In connection with the cessation of the transport of combat and transport aircraft from the United States to the Soviet Union via the Krasnoyarsk-Uelkal air route, the air division was transferred from the Civil Air Force to the subordination of the Military Air Force on 30 October 1945, where it was disbanded in December 1945.

https://allaces.ru/sssr/struct/d/pad1.php
www.airforce.ru

Pre prelety typická klinovitá formácia tvorená lídrom, v tomto prípade bombardérom B-25J Mitchell, a prelietavanými strojmi, ktorými sú Bell P-63 Kingcobra (rozpoznateľné na foto vďaka špicatej chvostovej časti a štvorlistej vrtuli), dodávanými do ZSSR v posledných rokoch vojny. Formácia je zachytená pri prelete ponad hrebene Verchojanského chrbta.


Vzhľadom na dlhé trasy preletov boli stíhacie stroje zásadne vybavované podvesnými nádržami, viditeľnými aj na snímke. Na stíhacích lietadlách tieto podvesné podkrídlové nádrže sovieti v bojových podmienkach nepoužívali, vzľadom na blízkosť frontových letísk k zónam ich nasadenia. Zadokumentované sú ale použitia týchto prídavných "bakov" pri prieskumných letoch do väčšej hĺbky nepriateľského územia.

https://magadanmedia.ru/news/1097254/

Velenie 1. prelietavacej leteckej divízie civilného letectva v plnej zostave a dobrej nálade, Jakutsk, máj 1944.


Zľava do prava: náčelník štábu polkovnik I.J. Prjanišnikov, zástupca veliteľa pre veci politické podpolkovnik A.S. Puškarskij (А.С.Пушкарский), veliteľ divízie polkovnik I.P. Mazuruk a úplne vpravo budúci veliteľ divízie (a v tom čase zástupca veliteľa pre letové operácie) polkovnik A.G. Meľnikov.

www.polarpost.ru