Reviews for Stalin's Eagles: An Illustrated Study of the Soviet Aces of World War II and Korea

The average rating for Stalin's Eagles: An Illustrated Study of the Soviet Aces of World War II and Korea based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-08-17 00:00:00 Larry Turner Stalin's Eagles. Hans Seidl. An encyclopedia of Russian WWII aviators. For me, the connotation that the title "Stalin's Eagles" suggests is: strong leadership coupled with a fierce allegiance of his aviators. In actuality, during the critical opening days of the German invasion of 1941, Stalin was unable to function, utterly paralyzed, and having recently executed his top generals, he was left with out an experienced staff. Stalin's pilots, surprised, woefully ill prepared and with out leadership were pulverized by the highly trained and experienced Luftwaffe. Stalin continued to betray his 'eagles' commanding them to fight with out reverence for human life on an individual scale. Despite Stalin's unpreparedness and his inability to lead under stress, his aviators fought fiercely for their country, eventually regaining air superiority. This book documents their lives. An interesting foot note is the amazing achievements made by the women of Russia during WWII. In 1943, while American feminist were still decades away from the rhetoric of 'bra burning' and pursuing bachelor degrees in 'women studies', courageous, young Russian women, flying American built P-39 Cobras, were blasting Nazi pilots out of the skies over Stalingrad. Fighter pilot ace Lidiya Litvyak, with 12 kills to her credit remains the world's highest scoring female ace. It's saddening to flip through the photographs of the young aviators standing proudly in front of their machines. -knowing that most would soon die. Ease of access to information since the fall of the Soviet Union has thankfully made works like this possible. Shiffler Military History continuos to produce top tier historic works.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-11-01 00:00:00 Kem Kob Interesting informative read Good book - initially thought it would be a long dull overly detailed account that repeated itself. As I read, I realized that it was growing and building interest. Time well spent learning about this interesting national hero.