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

Igor Aleksandrovich Kaberov was a World War II Soviet fighter pilot revered for bravery and valour of the highest order. This book contains his graphic account of war on the Eastern Front against the German invaders, based largely on personal diaries he kept while serving with a fighter squadron. Previously unpublished outside the Soviet Union, his story concerns the efforts of his squadron to repel German forces and is focused particularly on the desperate siege of Leningrad, one of the greatest feats of endurance in the history of warfare. There are vivid descriptions of dogfights with German fighters, the dreadful conditions that prevailed in Leningrad during the siege, and a rare insight into how a Soviet fighter squadron lived and fought. Kaberov served on a Naval squadron flying initially around Kronsdadt on the Gulf of Finland, protecting the naval base from attack, but then focusing on keeping the 'ice road' over lake Ladoga clear of enemy fighters to provide supplies to Leningrad, which at the time was under siege. Not only is the narrative of action very comprehensive (as one would expect) but when the author visits his parents and later a family in Leningrad during the siege, a view of the civilians caught in the fighting is seen.

Igor Kaberov
Hardcover with d/w 216pp Sutton Publishing 1999 1st Ed

Fine/Fine