About the book: 2018 / This book, based on numerous domestic, Romanian, German and other foreign sources, provides for the first time a complete chronicle of air battles on the southernmost sector of the Eastern Front, starting from June 22, 1941 until the evacuation of Soviet troops from Odessa. Various aspects and features of the use of fighter aircraft, bombers, attack aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft, flying boats, torpedo bombers and even communications and rescue aircraft of all warring parties - the Red Army, the Romanian FARR and the Luftwaffe - are considered. This is actually the first attempt in Russian historiography at a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of an air battle on a single sector of the front and its influence on the course of hostilities. The book debunks common myths about “all-crushing enemy attacks on airfields”, “complete dominance of the Luftwaffe in the air” from the first days war, “huge losses” of Soviet aviation and its exceptionally poor preparation, a “bloody meat grinder” into which “inexperienced” and “unfired” youths were allegedly sent. In addition, the authors studied the features of the Soviet pre-war doctrine of the use of the Air Force and its forced evolution in the first months of the war, described numerous biographies of Soviet pilots - both future famous aces and forgotten heroes - analyzed the system of awards for distinguished aviators.