Under the Lend-Lease agreement with the US During WWII, the Soviet Union received large quantities of war materiel, including many aircraft; the Bell P-39 Airacobra takes a special place among them.
This detailed, illustrated history features many color side views and previously unpublished photographs..
The P-39 was in Soviet Service since 1942; nearly 5,000 were supplied and used on the Soviet-German front, along with 2,400 P-63 Kingcobras, which saw only limited action against Japan at the close of the war.
Innovative tactics and motivation, coupled with the P-39\'s sturdy construction and adequate firepower, proved successful for the Soviets.
As air combat over the Russian front was conducted mostly at low altitudes, the P-39 came into its own.
Soviet pilots had different views, though, and achieved excellent results while flying the type; more than twenty Soviet aces flew the P-39.
The P-39 was dismissed as hardly suitable for combat both by the US and England, who turned it over in large numbers to the USSR.
Under the Lend-Lease agreement with the US During WWII, the Soviet Union received large quantities of war materiel, including many aircraft; the Bell P-39 Airacobra takes a special place among them
