Unfulfilled Promise

Merriam Press Military Monograph 8. Fifth Edition (February 2012). Even though the Soviet Union pioneered the use of parachute troops during the 1930s, this is the first book to appear in English about the Soviet use of airborne troops in World War II. This oversight can probably be explained in part by the fact that the few large-scale parachute drops attempted by the Soviets during the war were failures by Western standards. However, as well-known special forces author Leroy Thompson shows in this work, there were inherent differences in the Soviet philosophy of airborne warfare which caused them to view many of their airborne operations in a far different light than U.S., German or British analysts. The relationship between the Soviet airborne forces and the partisans was constantly considered by the Soviet High Command when planning airborne operations and Thompson stresses that relationship in this work. The author has produced a comprehensive history of the weapons, equipment, aircraft and gliders, training, and combat history of the elite of the Soviet armed forces in the period up to and including World War II. Contents: Introduction; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Training; Chapter 2: Uniforms, Equipment and Parachutes; Chapter 3: Weapons; Chapter 4: The Planes; Chapter 5: Gliders; Chapter 6: The Partisans; Chapter 7: From the Beginnings to BARBAROSSA; Chapter 8: The First Six Months of War and the Near Annihilation of the Soviet Airborne; Chapter 9: 1942: The First Large Soviet Airborne Operation and the Conversion of the Airborne Corps to Rifle Divisions; Chapter 10: 1943: The Last Major Airborne Assault; Chapter 11: The Defeat of the Reich and the Soviet War Against Japan; Chapter 12: Conclusion; Bibliography; 22 photos; 6 illustrations; 2 maps; 4 organization charts.