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Hello, welcome to another World War 2 podcast. I'm Angus Wallace.

In this episode I'm talking to Edward Hooten and we're looking at the Air War over the Eastern Front.

A topic I'm not that familiar with and from my own point of view it's

always been overshadowed by the war on the ground. Edward has written a number of books on aviation

history during the Second World War and his latest book,

The War over the Steps, the Air Campaigns on the Eastern Front, 1941-45,

is a fascinating look at the air operations carried out by both the Russians and the Germans during the war.

Edward, thanks for joining me. I wonder if you'd start before the war with the purges,

presumably the purges. Presumably the Air Force would have been hit hard.

It's staffed by the intelligentsia as it were and not the illiterate.

I question actually whether the purges wasn't the excuse, ready-made excuse for the Soviet

armed forces for their defeat.

...