Uploaded November 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
As Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, Soviets found themselves in a difficult situation. Flying often outdated fighters with limited firepower, sometimes when they were not able to shoot down Luftwaffe aircraft, they would resort to ramming them with their own. This tactics was called 'Taran' in Russian and while it was occasionally performed by pilot of almost all of the nations involved in WWII, Soviet pilots would use it a lot more frequently. While we might think of these pilots as Soviet equivalents of the Japanese Kamikaze, this video examines in details the motivations and circumstances for these attacks and how they might be similar or different compared to their more famous Japanese counterparts.
Sources:
- Dmitry Degtev and Dmitry Zubov - Air Battle for Moscow 1941-1942
amzn.to/3SPfOnx
- Dmitry Khazanov - MiG-3 Aces of World War 2
amzn.to/3U4kjMo
- Dmitry Khazanov and Alexander Medved - Bf 109E/F vs Yak-1/7: Eastern Front 1941–42
amzn.to/3sI7N9F
- J.T Quinlivan - The Taran : Ramming in the Soviet Air Force
rand.org/pubs/papers/P7192.html
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discord.gg/c56q7tUNCP
Audio mastering by Don Solaris:
youtube.com/shorts/Hf4wOknl4pY
#militaryaviationhistory #wwii
As Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, Soviets found themselves in a difficult situation. Flying often outdated fighters with limited firepower, sometimes when they were not able to shoot down Luftwaffe aircraft, they would resort to ramming them with their own. This tactics was called 'Taran' in Russian and while it was occasionally performed by pilot of almost all of the nations involved in WWII, Soviet pilots would use it a lot more frequently. While we might think of these pilots as Soviet equivalents of the Japanese Kamikaze, this video examines in details the motivations and circumstances for these attacks and how they might be similar or different compared to their more famous Japanese counterparts.
Sources:
- Dmitry Degtev and Dmitry Zubov - Air Battle for Moscow 1941-1942
amzn.to/3SPfOnx
- Dmitry Khazanov - MiG-3 Aces of World War 2
amzn.to/3U4kjMo
- Dmitry Khazanov and Alexander Medved - Bf 109E/F vs Yak-1/7: Eastern Front 1941–42
amzn.to/3sI7N9F
- J.T Quinlivan - The Taran : Ramming in the Soviet Air Force
rand.org/pubs/papers/P7192.html
Donate via Paypal:
paypal.com/paypalme/showtime112
Support the channel on Patreon:
patreon.com/showtime112
Join our Discord server:
discord.gg/c56q7tUNCP
Audio mastering by Don Solaris:
youtube.com/shorts/Hf4wOknl4pY
#militaryaviationhistory #wwii
