"Achtung! Pokryshkin Is in the Air!". Stalin's Falcon No. 1

"Achtung! Achtung! In the sky, Pokryshkin!"—it blared from all German alert stations the moment he took to the air, and the “invincible” experts of the Luftwaffe rushed to get out of the fight. “The brave among the brave, leader, the best Soviet ace”—it says in his award citation. The only Hero of the Soviet Union who received this highest award not after, but during the war, Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin was not just a legend—he was a living symbol of Soviet aviation. On his combat record, according to official (and heavily underreported) figures, 59 enemy aircraft shot down. And his motto—“Altitude—speed—maneuver—fire!”—became a universal “formula of victory” for all the “Stalin’s falcons.”

This book offers a unique opportunity to see the decisive aerial battles of the Great Patriotic War through the eyes of the aces themselves—from the cockpit of “Messers” and “Focke-Wulfs,” and through the sight of Pokryshkin’s “Aerocobra.”