The 6th Fighter Aviation Corps of Air Defence was a military formation of the

Red Army Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

Air Defense Aviation of the

Soviet Armed Forces The Soviet Armed Forces, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union and as the Red Army (, Вооружённые Силы Советского Союза), were the armed forces of the Russian SFSR (1917–1922), the Soviet Union (1922–1991), and th ...

, which fought in the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sout ...

. The corps had the successive names the 6th Air Defence Fighter Aviation Corps and the Moscow Air Defence Fighter Corps.

Creation of the Corps

The corps was formed by the order of

People's Commissar of Defence The Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union refers to the head of the Ministry of Defence who was responsible for defence of the socialist Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917 to 1922 and the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1992. Pe ...

, dated June 19, 1941, on the basis of the

24th Fighter Aviation Division The 24th Fighter Aviation Division is a unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force. It is headquartered at Yangcun Air Base in the Beijing Military Region. The unit is equipped with J-8 fighters. PLA-AF fighter divisions generally con ...

and the 78th Fighter Aviation DivisionsOrder State Defense Committee of the USSR No. 0041 dated June 19, 1941 together supervising the 11th,

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

, 24th, 27th, 34th, 120th, 176th, 177th, 178th, 233rd, and 309th Fighter Aviation Regiments. The headquarters of the corps was located in Moscow on Kirov Street, house 33. Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Komarov was appointed chief of staff. In June 1941, it had 175

crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involve ...

of Yak-1, MiG-3, LaGG-3 aircraft, and 212 I-16 and I-153 crews. By July 9, the corps included 21 fighter aviation regiments, by July 22, 1941 - 29, in which there were 585 aircraft, of which 170 MiG-3, 75 LaGG-3, 95 Yak-1, 200 I-16 and 45

I-153 The Polikarpov I-153 ''Chaika'' (Russian ''Чайка'', "Seagull") was a late 1930s Soviet biplane fighter. Developed as an advanced version of the I-15 with a retractable undercarriage, the I-153 fought in the Soviet-Japanese combats in Mong ...

. In accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Defence, four air defence aviation control zones were established: * Western sector, under deputy corps commander

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

P. M. Stefanovsky, controlling seven fighter aviation regiments. * Northern sector, under deputy corps commander

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

A. I. Mitenkov, controlling three fighter aviation regiments * Southern sector, under deputy corps commander Colonel N. K. Trifonov, controlling six fighter aviation regiments * Eastern sector, under deputy corps commander

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

M. N. Yakushin, subordinate to two IAP On the basis of NKO order No. 0087, issued on May 21, 1943, the corps was transformed into the 1st Fighter Air Defence Army in the first half of June 1943.Michael Holm
52nd Fighter Air Defence Army
/ref> The 6th Corps served as part of the "Active Army" from June 22, 1941 to June 9, 1943.

References

*{{cite book , author = Collective , title = Air Defence Forces of the Country , edition = , place= Moscow , publisher=

Voenizdat Voenizdat (russian: Воениздат) was a publishing house in Moscow, Russia that was one of the first and largest publishing houses in USSR. The name is a Russian abbreviation for "Voennoe Izdatelstvo", meaning "Military Publication". Voen ...

, year = 1968 , isbn = Corps of the Soviet Air Defence Forces Air units and formations of the Soviet Union in World War II Corps of the Soviet Union in World War II Military units and formations established in 1941 Military units and formations disestablished in 1943 Fighter aircraft units and formations of the Soviet Union