Author:Mike Guardia

Mike Guardia, author of Air War On The Eastern Front, is a veteran of the US Army where he served six years active duty as a Tank Commander. Guardia has penned nearly twenty books to date, been reviewed by The Washington Times, Vietnam Magazine, Military Review, Soldier Magazine UK, DefenseWeb South Africa, and The Canada Report. He has spoken before groups at the George Bush Presidential Library (Bush 41), the International Spy Museum, and the US Special Operations Command. Guardia been hosted on Good Morning Texas, The Rod Arquette Show, Frontlines of Freedom, Military Network Radio, Barracks Talk, and Inside Track. Currently, he resides in Minnesota with his family.

Air War On The Eastern Front begins with the incidents leading up to the Great Patriotic War known as Operation Barbarossa which became the longest military operation in history. To which Guardia says, “The Eastern Front was a conflict more than 20 years in the making. Both Germany and the Soviet Union had been suffering from internal strife since the end of World War I. “ (2020, p.9)

The book traces many iterations of the various aircraft and how successful, unsuccessful, or mediocre they were according to those who designed and flew them. It is steeped with pictures of aircraft ranging from the Soviet Yakovlev UT-1 trainer thru the Polikarpov I-16 and I-5 fighter to the Lavochkin-Gudkov LaGG-3/La-5/La-7 fighters thru the Jukers JU-87 “Stuka”/JU-87G/JU-88, the Bf-109/109G/109G-2, the MiG-1/MiG-3, the He-111, the Fw-190A-9, and many, many, more.  There are maps of cities where battles were fought, profiles highlighting some of the main characters in these wars, a section dedicated to the women who valiantly fought and flew earning awards posthumously, and timelines depicting the various actions and outcomes that comprise the Eastern Front War. 

Operation Barbarossa, while lengthy and costly, is one of the milestones that eventually turned the tides for air and ground superiority in WWII. About which Guardia says “By mid-1941, the Axis Powers had dominated Western Europe (save Great Britain) and had a comfortable foothold in the Balkans and North Africa. German expansion, and its attendant blitzkrieg, however, had left the Reich in dire need of raw materials, thus prompting Hitler to eye that mineral-rich Soviet Union. As early as December 1940, Hitler had begun making preparations for invasion of the USSR-evaluating potential strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet air and ground forces.” (2020, p.41) 

“All told. June 1941 was a catastrophe for the Red Air Force. The Luftwaffe owned the skies, and the Soviet counterattacks were having little effect.” (2020, p.60) Month two was nearly equally as dismal with the exception of the following. “…the Red Air Force slowed the Germans’ advance and effectively stopped the 4th Panzer Army’s advance on Leningrad.” (p.65) There were heavy losses on the German side once the offensive was complete. This seemingly small win emboldened the Soviet pilots to become more aggressive in protecting their homeland.  “’Another factor in the Soviets’ reversal of fortune was the very size of their homeland. The vastness of the Soviet Union strained even the best of the Luftwaffe’s support units. “ (p.66) At this same time, Germany was rethinking their path forward. Their original plan was to move toward taking Moscow, but instead they shifted toward Kiev and Leningrad. 

As summer moved into fall and fall into winter the Soviet’s began to make strides against the German’s. “During the second half of December, the temperatures dropped to set a record low of -44 degrees F. The extreme temperatures effectively paralyzed the Luftwaffe for the rest of the season.” (2020, p.75)  As that year ended and another progressed, the Germans failed to fully recover. They got trapped in Kohlm Pocket, which is south of Leningrad, and were surrounded in Demyansk.  However stifling that was, the Germans doggedly continued and managed to eke a success out of Demyansk. 

The battle of Stalingrad was next. Stalingrad was the lengthiest inner-city battle of WWII. It lasted from late summer of 1942 until early 1943. The Germans managed to continue to dominate the air but had lost a sizeable number of aircraft and fighter pilots in the process. These battles caused the Soviet’s to revise their air and ground strategies and develop newer, better planes. 

The book continues, but I don’t want to give away the whole book in this review. So buy it, read it, and learn as I did.