Swastika in the Gunsight: Memoirs of a Russian Fighter Pilot 1941-45

by Igor Kaberov, Peter Rule

Release Date: October, 1999

Edition: Hardcover

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An interesting, but disappointing East Front epic

Until lately, it's been rare to find any literature on WWII from the Russian perspective...at least in Roman languages. Thus, Kaberov's first-person account of air combat and life on the front in the Leningrad sector of the Eastern Front is eagerly awaited: a rare glimpse of the trials of a young Navy pilot fresh out of flight school when Barbarossa opens in the summer of 1941.

The real strength of this book lies in the author's pointed attempts to "remember the heros": the book is full of anecodotes of Kaberov and his comrades, their deeds and their tragic demises. How the war affects a small village where Kaberov ditches his plane in one of his first I-16 engagements comes full circle, and offers both poignancy and a sense of patriotism and redemption.

However, the book disappoints aficianados of air combat in its frustrating lack of detail on the actual battles. There are few meaty descriptions of the aircraft flown, the tactics used, the planes' foibles and strengths, aside from a few brief comparisons of the LaGG-3 and the Yak, and a critical examination of the Hurricane, which Kaberov's unit flirted with briefly in 1942. Combat seems glossed over from first contact until one plane or another plummets earthward. One doesn't get that "describe the dogfight with your hands" feel that is a great part of the best 1st person accounts.

Also, there is a lack of operational detail, and aside from a few maps, the reader does not get enough of a sense of how the war was progressing at various points and why. It is true that Kaberov had a relatively low rank through most of the book, and might not have been privy to this information at the time, but since it is written in retrospect, some contextual detail of the war would have been welcome.

One interesting omission: Kaberov describes a desperate and successful aerial defense of the battleship Marat, yet fails to mention the ship was finally sunk just a few days later.

Still, this book is an entertaining, brisk read, and is far better than the complete absense of any Russian accounts of the war for Russia in the 1940s.

It could have been interesting, but..

If you like pure a propaganda then this is the book for you. That is a pity since Igor Kaberov seems to be by all means a brave and trustworthy pilot. It only seems to be so, that it has been impossible to write any unbiased or neutral text in former Soviet Union. All the Russians are devoted and brave and the enemy is always fearful and unskilled. If the bomber tries to evade Kaberov by going inside cloud he is at least treacherous by nature. Some of the details are hard to believe. During 1942 in one particular fight Kaberov and his mates shoot down several Finnish 2-motor Capronis. The exact date is not mentioned. There were no Capronis nor any 2-motor fighters in Finnish Air Force. I find, that it is a pity, that there is no neutral memoirs told by Red Air Force. I mean in style like the books of Pierre Clostermann or Helmut Lipfert. There must have been Many distinguished pilots, who had had a lot to tell, but maybe it is too late now. They must all be well over 80 by now.