17th Air Army

The 17th Air Army (17-я воздушная армия) was an Air army of the Red Air Force and Soviet Air Forces from 1942.

Formation and Great Patriotic War Service

It was formed in October (Bonn et al.: November) 1942 on the basis of the Air Forces of the Southwestern Front. Bonn et al. say that it included a mixed air corps, two fighter, one ground-attack, one bomber, and one night bomber division. It immediately took part in the Battle of Stalingrad. On 19 November 1942 during the battle of Stalingrad it was under the command of General Major Stepan Krasovsky. On 1 April 1943, as part of the Southwestern Front, it comprised the 3rd Mixed Aviation Corps (207th Fighter Aviation Division, 290th Assault Aviation Division), 7th Mixed Aviation Corps (202nd Bomber Aviation Division, 235th Fighter Aviation Division), 9th Mixed Aviation Corps (305th, 306th Assault Aviation Division, 295th Fighter Aviation Division), 244th Bombardment Aviation Division, 262nd Night Bomber Aviation Division, 39th, 132nd Bomber Aviation Regiments, 208th, 637th Attack Aviation Regiments, 282nd Mixed Aviation Regiment, 371st Transport Aviation Regiment, 10th, 50th Reconnaissance Aviation Squadrons, 34th Fire Correction Squadron.[1] From March 1943 until the end of the war Vladimir Sudets (ru:Судец, Владимир Александрович) commanded the 17th Air Army.[2] From 1943-45 it participated in the Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh, Left and Right Bank Ukraine operations, and the capture of Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Austria. Over 200,000 sorties were flown.[3]

Post War Reorganization

On 1 May 1945 the army consisted of the 1614th, 1615th, 1654th, 1676th, 1975th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiments and the 10th Assault Aviation Corps (136th and 306th Assault Aviation Divisions), 244th Bomber Aviation Division, 189th Assault Aviation Division, the 194th, 288th and 295th Fighter Aviation Divisions, 262nd Night Bomber Aviation Division, 39th Separate Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment, 96th Separate Artillery Correction Regiment, 227th Transport Aviation Regiment, 3rd Medical Evacuation Aviation Regiment, and the 282nd Aviation Communications Regiment.[4]

39th Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment was transferred to Samarkand and the 6th Air Army in 1947.[5]

Air Force Colonel General Goryunov was commanding 17th Air Army as at 30 November 1947.[6]

In February 1949 it was redesignated the 69th Air Army. In April 1964 the 69th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District. In April 1968 the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District became the 69th Air Army once more. In April 1972 the 69th Air Army was redesignated the 17th Air Army. In July (июне) 1980 the 17th Air Army became the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District. In May 1988 the Air Forces of the Kiev Military District became the 17th Air Army.

In 1992 the air army became part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; by 1996 it appears to have been dissolved.

Order of battle 1970

Organisation 1970:

April 1972 renamed 17th Air Army.

The 138th Fighter Aviation Division joined the 24th Air Army VGK in 1980.

Order of battle late 1980s

In the late 1980s its headquarters was at Kiev. This order of battle is a composite; aircraft numbers are from Vad777 and virtually all other information is from Michael Holm, with some material from Feskov et al.

Lugansk Higher Military Aviation School of Navigators (Луганское ВВАУШ/Lugansk VVAUSh)[10]

Kharkhov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (Харьковское ВВАУЛ/Kharkov VVAUL)[11]

Chernigov Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots (Черниговское ВВАУЛ/Chernigov VVAUL)

The Chernigov School was disbanded 30.11.1995.[12]

Lugansk Higher Military Aviation School of Navigators

In connection with the reduction of air and focus on intensive development of anti-missile technology, Voroshilovgrad Pilot School, amongst other Air Force military schools, was disbanded in 1960.[13] The vacant airfield was given over to MI-4 and MI-6 helicopters. In the mid 1960s Helicopter facility was transferred to the city of Voronezh and was replaced by the Kharkov Regiment VVAUL, equipped with L-29 Delfin, who was based in Lugansk until mid-1967.

In 1966, the commander in chief of the Air Force decided to establish a second Soviet navigators' aviation school, and since at that time the only school of navigators was in Chelyabinsk, the choice fell on Lugansk city, it was decided to establish a school of navigators on the basis of previously liquidated Pilots' School. September 9, 1966, is considered the official date of formation VVVAUSH (at the time - LVVAUSH). The Chelyabinsk Red Banner Military Aviation Institute of Navigators sent to Lugansk a number of officers who formed the school's backbone. In the summer of 1967, held its first set of students in the school (two companies). In 1969, the command of the school appealed to the Regional Party Committee with a request for assignment LVVAUSH as successor Lugansk military pilot school, the name of "the proletariat of Donbass".

Since 1971, the issue is students who had been weaned four years directly VVVAUSH. Education at the school was carried out on four profiles: Military Transport Aviation, maritime missile-carrying aircraft (MPA), anti-submarine aircraft (PLA) and the profile of training - the officer of command and control.

After the independence of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine was not able to maintain the school and it was gradually reduced. In October 1993 the Lugansk VVAUSH joined the Kharkiv Institute of the Air Force as a branch (now Kharkiv Air Force University, named after Ivan Kozheduba) (ru:Харьковский университет Воздушных Сил имени Ивана Кожедуба). The last issue of LVVAUSH cadets was produced in 1996 and later that year on the basis of the school was formed 205th aviation training base of the Kharkov Air Force Institute, which existed two years and was disbanded. The date of official liquidation LVVAUSH was considered July 17, 1997.

References

  1. ↑ Combat composition of the Soviet Army, 1 April 1943
  2. ↑ Great Soviet Encyclopedia
  3. ↑ Keith E. Bonn et al, Slaughterhouse, 2005, 339.
  4. ↑ Combat composition of the Soviet Army, 1 May 1945
  5. ↑ http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/regiment/orap/39orap.htm
  6. ↑ http://collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=23644
  7. ↑ Activated during Second World War as 288th FAD. Redesignated 1 October 1949 as 138 FAD. http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/division/iad/138iad.htm
  8. ↑ http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/squadrons/osae/255osae.htm
  9. ↑ http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/squadrons/ove/228overeb.htm
  10. ↑ Source http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/division/schools/vvaush.htm
  11. ↑ Translations from http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/division/schools/khvvaul.htm, accessed November 2012.
  12. ↑ http://www.ww2.dk/new/air%20force/division/schools/chvvaul.htm
  13. ↑ http://snachki.narod.ru/ucheba.BBC.htm

Further reading

External links

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