Impact & Legacy - Combat performance, logistics, and the long-term significance of Allied aircraft

The final volume in this four-part series offers the first comprehensive evaluation of the overall impact of Lend-Lease aviation on the Soviet war effort and its enduring legacy. Drawing on a vast range of Soviet and Western archival sources, aviation historian Vladimir Kotelnikov assesses how thousands of Allied aircraft shaped combat, logistics, and doctrine between 1941 and 1945, and how their influence extended well into the postwar years. Kotelnikov analyses the combat performance of all major Lend-Lease types-fighters, bombers, transports, and naval aircraft-drawing on Soviet reports, pilot testimonies, and comparative evaluations. He examines the practicalities of sustaining foreign aircraft in frontline conditions: the supply of spares and fuel, the adaptation of maintenance procedures, and the training of air and ground crews to operate unfamiliar designs. The volume highlights both successes and failures, showing where Allied aircraft provided vital capabilities and where they fell short of Soviet expectations. Beyond the battlefield, the study considers the strategic contribution of Lend-Lease aviation. By alleviating pressure on Soviet industry and filling critical gaps in equipment, Allied deliveries allowed Soviet designers and factories to concentrate on future projects. Kotelnikov traces the influence of Western aircraft on postwar Soviet development, from transport aviation to long-range bombing concepts, and shows how wartime experience informed Cold War-era design and doctrine. Illustrated with colour profiles, rare photographs, technical data, and statistical appendices, this concluding volume provides a balanced, authoritative account of how Lend-Lease aviation contributed to Soviet victory in the Second World War and left a lasting imprint on the evolution of Soviet air power. AUTHOR: Vladimir Kotelnikov was born in Moscow on 9 December 1951. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute (University) in 1975 and was engaged in research and development in the area of high-temperature strength. Vladimir defended the academic degree of the Candidate of Science in 1981 and read lectures on aircraft piston engine design at the Moscow Aviation Institute. Since the 1980s Kotelnikov has conducted archive research on the history of Russian aviation of the inter-war and Second World War periods. In addition, he paid specific attention to the history of foreign aircraft testing and operations in Russia. As the result of his work he published several hundred articles and dozens of books in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and the United States, among them Lend-Lease and Soviet Aviation, Americans in Russia, Russian Piston Aero Engines, Early Russian Jet Engines, Air War Over Khalkhin Gol, Le Petlyakov Pe-2 and others. Being an aviation historian, he received a diploma as a professor of the Academy of Aviation and Aeronautics Science and currently acts as a consultant on piston aero engine design to Russian aviation museums as well as to different aircraft restoration groups. From 2003 Vladimir held the post of an editor of the Aviakollektsiya aviation history journal, published in Moscow. He passed away in 2022. 137 b/w photos, 8pp colour profiles, 1 b/w map