Attack of the Airacobras

Dmitriy Loza, a much-decorated Soviet Army colonel, commanded a Sherman-equipped tank battalion in World War II. James F. Gebhardt, a twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Army, has translated two other works by Loza, Commanding the Red Army's Sherman Tanks and Fighting for the Soviet Motherland.

During its titanic military struggle with Germany, the Soviet Union received a major boost with the arrival and deployment of nearly 5,000 Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter - courtesy of America's Lend-Lease program. The impact was dramatic as the Soviets quickly adapted the planes into a devastatingly lethal force. Loza vividly re-creates the battle campaigns of this odd coupling of capitalist planes and Marxist pilots and allows access to a little-known part of the air war on the Eastern Front.... Based on interviews with Soviet veterans and extensive access to squadron histories and log books, this account provides a rare and insightful look at what it was like to live and fight in this victorious air unit. - Air Classics ""Superb anecdotes abound."" - Air & Space ""If you like vigorous and heroic air combat, you'll love this book."" - Virginia Quarterly Review ""An extraordinarily accurate and vivid account that deserves a wide readership."" - David M. Glantz, author of The Battle of Kursk