British and American Air Force in the Caucasus during Second World War: the Preparation of the operation “Velvet” and the Collapse of its Implementation

Abstract

The article considers the attempts of the USSR allies in the Second World War to send Anglo-American air forces to the southern flank of the Soviet-German front. The government of Great Britain, and then of the United States of America, turned to this idea against the backdrop of a crisis in the supply of military equipment to the USSR with the help of naval caravans through the city of Murmansk. The Soviet government, initially positively assessing the conduct of the military operation, did not attach much importance to this topic, refusing to regard it as an equivalent replacement for the supply of new military equipment. In view of the long search for common ground in this matter, by the autumn of 1942, the position of the Soviet Union has undergone serious changes. The successes of the counteroffensive under the city of Stalingrad against the Wehrmacht army made the presence of significant Allied air forces on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front undesirable. The main part of this study focuses on diplomatic negotiations, which took place in various forms for several months in 1942, with the goal of implementing a general operation codenamed «Velvet». Within the framework of this study, the dynamics of the development of the training of the air forces for work on the tasks of the Soviet Air Force, and the parallel activity of the diplomatic bodies of the three countries in achieving the implementation of the project were considered in a phased, chronological order. Drawing on a wide range of domestic and foreign historical sources, the article reveals the goals of each of the parties involved in the proposed operation, as well as the reasons why the long period of preparation for joint actions ended in vain.