Spitfires of The USSR
In early October 1942 Iosif V. Stalin wrote to Sir Winston Churchill, requesting the urgent delivery of Spitfires. Churchill agreed to send a batch of 150 Supermarine fighters, along with spares, equivalent to an additional 50 aircraft. Deliveries of Spitfire VBs to USSR started in the spring of 1943. These were the first official Spitfire export. Most of these Mk Vbs had already seen extensive service with the RAF. One of the first units to receive the Spitfire was the 36th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which was part of the Voyenno-Vozdushnyye Sily or VVS. Soviet pilots were very disappointed by the performance of the Spitfire V; they preferred, and made better use of, the Bell P-39 Airacobra.
According to Senior Lieutenant Anatoli Ivanov "We knew that at the time the English had a better fighter, the Spitfire IX, and the word was that it was good. The aircraft our Allies had presented to us, however, were of a much older version... and these Spitfires had taken some knocks before they were repaired and transferred to us... Its speed was not much greater than that of the I-16... The Soviet fighters designed by Lavochkin and Yakovlev had significantly better performance..."
In the Soviet "open press" the trend of the times was that foreign-built items were never to be shown as better than home-built products.
But usually Soviet pilots agreed that the Spitfire Mk VB was easy to fly and that it was a magnificent compromise between manoeuvrability and stability. In this respect, the British fighter was superior to the Yak-1, to say nothing of the LaGG-3 and MiG-3. Other fighters could, however, outdive the British fighter, so a dive in order to break away when under attack — a tactic that worked well with other types — could be fatal on the Spitfire, because it picked up speed slowly due to the low wing loading. The armament was superior to that of any Soviet fighter and was only surpassed later by that of the Yak-9T.
However, the Spitfire did have defects. Because of the narrow track the undercarriage was ill suited to Soviet grass airfields. The aircraft could start swaying dangerously while taxiing over uneven ground, and the wingtip could easily touch the ground. Moreover the Spitfire had a centre of gravity positioned well forward and could easily stand on its nose while manoeuvering on soft or uneven ground; the flight manual expressily forbade taxiing in such conditions without a man sitting astride the tail for balance. Moreover, the widely spaced wing guns proved unfamiliar to Soviet pilots, as on Soviet fighters the armament was usually grouped around the engine; flying the Spitfire, they found that hitting the target at close range or during violent manoeuvres in a dogfight was not easy.
By 1943, the VVS was being re-equipped with Lavochkin La-5s and Yakovlev Yak-1s and Yak-9s which were extremely good low-to-medium-altitude fighters and, with their rugged construction and wide-track undercarriages, were well suited to operating from the frontline airfields. Spitfire IX became irreplaceable in a role of a high-altitude interceptor of air defence.
As far as can be ascertained the total numbers of Spitfire which were delivered are as follows:
- Vb: = 143
- PR IV: = 9 (number not confirmed)
- LF IX: = 1183
- HF XI: = 2
- LF XVI: = 9
Read more about this topic: Supermarine Spitfire Operational History