1st Air Defense Corps (1938)

The 1st Air Defense Corps was intended for Moscow air defense.

Parts, formations and unions that performed the tasks of the Moscow air defense

• Air Defense Directorate of Moscow (since April 25, 1918);
• 1st Separate Territorial Positioning Anti-aircraft Artillery Division (1924)
• The 31st separate anti-aircraft artillery division (1924–1929);
• 1st Air Defense Brigade (since 09/21/1929);
• 1st Air Defense Division (since August 17, 1931);
• 1st Air Defense Corps (since January 11, 1938);
• Moscow air defense zone (since June 1941);
• Moscow corps district (11/09/1941) ^[1] as part of the Moscow Military District;
• Moscow Air Defense Front (April 5, 1942) ^[2]
• Special Moscow Army Air Defense (from June 29, 1943) ^[3] ;
• Moscow Air Defense Group of the Central Air Defense Front (from December 24, 1945) ^[4] ;
• The Moscow Air Defense Forces of the Central Air Defense Front (since March 1945) ^[4] ;
• The Moscow Air Defense Forces of the Central District ^[5] (since October 25, 1945);
• Moscow Air Defense Forces of the North-West District ^[6] (since May 23, 1946);
• Moscow air defense region ^[7] (since August 14, 1948);
• Moscow District Air Defense ^[8] (from August 20, 1954);
• Moscow District Air Force and Air Defense (since 1998);
• Special Command (since September 1, 2002);
• Joint Strategic Command of Aerospace Defense (since July 1, 2009);
• Air and Missile Defense Command (since December 1, 2011);
• 1st Army Air Defense and Missile Defense (since 2015).

In 1929, the first air defense compound was formed - the 1st Air Defense Brigade ^[9] , which included part of anti-aircraft artillery, anti-aircraft machine guns and air surveillance, warning and communications ( SPAR ) ^[10] . The 1st Air Defense Brigade was reformed into the 1st Air Defense Division ^[11] (the division commander is the NV Scheglov, the brigade commander).

The 1st Air Defense Corps was created on the basis of the 1st Air Defense Division, reformed on the basis of the Directive of the Military Council of the Moscow Military District ^[12] , developed in turn, in connection with the adoption of the Air Defense Improvement Program of the country , approved by the Defense Committee under the SNK of the USSR.

As part of the army ^[13] :

• from July 1, 1941 to December 17, 1941.

• brigade commander Kryukov F. Ya. - from April 1938;
• Kombrig Olenin I. A. - since October 1938;
• kombrig Gromadin, MS - from January 1940;
• Major General Tikhonov V.G. artillery;
• Major General of Artillery Zhuravlev D. A. - since May 1941.

In order to create a unified grouping of air defense forces and assets on the territory of the country, united in the air defense areas, in accordance with the Decree of the State Defense Committee of November 9, 1941, the 1st air defense corps on December 27, 1941 was reorganized into the Moscow corps air defense district .

As of June 1941, the 1st Air Defense Corps contained six anti-aircraft artillery regiments (176, 193, 250, 251, 329 and 745), one anti-aircraft machine-gun regiment, two regiments of barrage balloons, two searchlight regiments and two VNOS regiments. They were armed with 548 medium-caliber anti-aircraft guns (372 guns of 85-mm caliber and 176 guns of 76-mm caliber), 28 small caliber, 100 quad-machine guns of 7.62 mm caliber , 318 projectiles , 68 posts of barrage balloons, 580 positions of VNOS , several radar stations RUS-1 , located on the line Rzhev - Vyazma , and one RUS-2 ^{[14] [15]} . With the beginning of the war, the armament of the corps began to increase. July 22, 1941 in the case was 564 85-mm anti-aircraft guns, 232 76-mm, 248 37-mm and 336 anti-aircraft machine guns ^[16] .

By July 22, 1941 (the date of the commencement of massed raids by German aircraft on Moscow), parts of the corps had 1044 medium and small caliber guns, 336 installations of quad machine guns and were promptly deployed according to the mobilization plan and took order in due time ^[17] .

The development of Moscow Air Defense provided for the possibility of repelling an air enemy attack from any direction, at any time of the day and in any meteorological conditions, as well as from any height. In accordance with such principles of construction, it was assumed ^[17] :

• air defense fighter aircraft destroys enemy aircraft on the approaches to Moscow - at a distance of 80 - 100 kilometers;
• construction of a circular defense of the city with the removal of the zone of fire to the western and southern directions, creating here the most dense grouping of anti-aircraft artillery;
• the creation of illuminated floodlight fields to support combat operations of fighter aviation and antiaircraft artillery at night, primarily on the most likely lines of attack of enemy aviation — to the west and south of Moscow, with a depth of 30–35 kilometers each (16 such fields were created) ;
• to deploy parts of aerostats air barriers for the defense of the city center and its southern and western suburbs from enemy aircraft;
• to conduct reconnaissance of the enemy aviation by parts of air surveillance, warning and communication, ensuring the detection of the enemy from the line 200-250 kilometers from Moscow; radar detection stations (RUS-1 and RUS-2) deploy at the turn of Rzhev - Vyazma.
• create false objects in Moscow and on the approaches to it to disorient the enemy (false factory buildings with pipes, oil depots with access roads and trains were built. In one area there was even a “military camp” with tents and decorative figures of fighters. In a number places were built false airfields and created false firing positions of anti-aircraft artillery).

During the battles for Moscow, the enemy dropped ^[17] 697 high-explosive, 2521 incendiary, 156 lighting bombs on false objects, and several enemy aircraft were shot down.

Enemy aviation in the composition of the Army Group Center that was advancing on Moscow had part of the bomber aviation of the 2nd Air Fleet, totaling 1,600 airplanes. For the raid on Moscow, a specially created air group was created, composed of several selected squadrons of the Luftwaffe ^[17] :

• 4th bomber squadron "Wever" (dropped bombs on London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and other cities in England)
• 28th Squadron (bombing Paris and Amsterdam);
• The 53rd bomber squadron "Legion-Condor" (Spain, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece);
• 55th Bomber Squadron (deployed from Kiev direction).

The number of each squadron reached 70 aircraft, based mainly from the airfield of Baranavichy , and later from the Smolensk region.

By mid-July 1941, the number of bomber aircraft for raids on Moscow reached more than 300 types of bombers: He-111, Ju-88, Do-215. More than half of their crews had night flight experience. Every fourth crew commander was a rank not lower than the colonel.

Flight July 21 - July 22, 1941

On July 21, 1941, at 22.25 hours, the enemy, with forces of 200-250 aircraft, launched from the airfields of Brest, Baranavichy, Bobruisk and Minsk, in four successive echelons from the northwestern, western and southwestern directions invaded the airspace of the Moscow air defense zone and at an altitude of 2000 meters began to approach Moscow. All air defense units were immediately put on alert. The city was air-raid. In the first raid, the enemy suffered significant losses ^[17] , never reaching the goal. The raid lasted until 3 hours 25 minutes July 22.

By order of the NKO USSR No. 241 of July 22, 1941, a high assessment was given to the actions of Moscow’s air defense systems during the first massive raid:

"... thanks to the vigilance of the air surveillance service (VNOS), enemy aircraft were detected, despite the darkness of the night, long before they appeared over Moscow ... Our fighters and anti-aircraft gunners shot down, according to final data, 22 enemy aircraft ...".

- Order NKO USSR № 241 dated July 22, 1941

Of the more than 12,600 airplanes making raids on Moscow, the air defense forces destroyed 1,305 ^[17] .

• The team of authors. N. A. Sbytov, Lieutenant-General of Aviation. Aviation shield of the capital // Battle for Moscow. - Moscow Worker, 1966. - p. 398. - 624 p. - 75 000 copies
• The team of authors. D. A. Zhuravlev Colonel-General retired artillery, former commander of the 1st Air Defense Corps. Defense of the capital // Battle for Moscow. - Moscow Worker, 1966. - p. 383. - 624 p. - 75 000 copies
• The team of authors. The combat composition of the Soviet Army. Part I (June - December 1941) / Grylev A.N. - Military Scientific Directorate of the General Staff. - M .: Military publishing house of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. - 84 s.
• The team of authors. List No. 11 of formations, units and subdivisions of the country's Air Defense Forces, which were part of the Active Army during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 / Zavizion. - USSR Ministry of Defense. Military Scientific Department of the General Staff. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1973. - T. Directive of the General Staff of 1973 No. DGSH-044. - 112 s.
• Andrey Demin. [vpk-news.ru/articles/21473 The Sky Shield of Central Russia For the 60th Anniversary of the Order of Lenin of the Moscow District Air Defense] (Rus.) . "Military Industrial Courier" (08/19/2014). The appeal date is December 31, 2015.
• A.G.Lensky, M.M.Tsybin. Part I // Soviet Air Defense Forces in the Last Years of the USSR. Directory". - SPb, INFO OL, 2013. - 164 p. (with ill.) with. - (Organization of troops). - 500 copies