Turkmen La-5FN in Uyghurstan

[comrade harps]

Sokol Aviation Collective La-5FN
Red 17, 552nd Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Turkmen Socialist Republic Army Air Force
Personal mount of Squadron Leader Abdy Bäşimow
Hotan, Uyghurstan Socialist Republic, 7 August 1945



Claimed partly by Mongolia, in whole by China, and fought over by local warlords, ethnic, religious and political rivals, the Uyghurstan Socialist Republic was born from an international Jadid military intervention lead by a general from Turkmenistan. The Jadids are an international movement of socialist Muslims who, during the upheavals of the Second Russian Revolution/The War Against Stalinism, came to power in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Forming the Jadid Brotherhood of Nations (JBN), the Jadids were backed by the Moscow Pact in bringing peace and security to the troubled Xinjiang region during their 1937 invasion. It wasn't until August 1945 that the Chinese government made a serious attempt to regain the "rebel province of Xinjiang".




While the Red Army was massing for its August 1945 Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation against Japanese-occupied eastern China, Red intelligence services caught wind of an imminent Chinese Nationalist campaign to restore Xinjiang to its control. Although Uyghurstan was a member of the Jadid Brotherhood of Nations, it was independent of the Moscow Pact. All other members of the JBN were part of the Moscow Pact. Among the forces the JBN despatched to defend Uyghurstan was the 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment of Turkmen Socialist Republic Army Air Force, which had been about to deploy across the Caspian Sea to engage the Stalin's TranCausasion Soviet Republic.




The 55th was equipped with a combination of Sokol Aviation Collective La-5FNs and La-7s, all of which had been built at Sokol's Gorky factory. The La-5FNs were from the last series built; completed between July and October 1944, these featured underwing pylons for the fighter-bomber role and were able to carry a 100kg bomb under each wing. The Gorky-built La-7s, delivered from November 1944, were similar to the LA-5FNs in being armed with a pair of cowl-mounted 20 mm ShVAK cannons (unlike the La-7s built elsewhere, which were armed with three 20 mm Berezin B-20 cannons).




With the La-5FNs performing attack duties and the La-7s providing fighter cover, the 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment functioned as a well-balanced, deployable and self-contained tactical air combat unit. As the Chinese Army advanced into Urghurstan on 3 August 1945, the Turkmen pilots joined Urghurstan's small fighter force (flying the Yak-1b) and provided air defence, close air support, tactical interdiction and reconnaissance in support of the nation's indigenous and foreign defenders. On the 4th a Turkmen La-7 pilot shot down a Chinese P-40N fighter and in the days that followed another P-40N and 2 C-47 were destroyed without loss.




Red 17 was the personal mount of Flight Leader Abdy Bäşimow. An experienced pilot who had previously flown LaGG-3 and La-5 in domestic air defence units and Il-2 bombers deployed to the Volgograd Front, he would go on to become a Regiment Leader. Although he didn't achieve any air-to-air victories during the 1945 Chinese incursion into Urghurstan, his final wartime victory tally stood at 7, plus 2 shared (2 German, 1 Romanian and 6 TransCausasian).



On 9 August the Red Army launched its Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation against the Japanese occupiers of eastern China. This effectively made the Moscow Pact nations and China allies against a mutual enemy. But they were uneasy allies, without a formal agreement and incertain of each others' intentions. With his attempt to regain the lost province of Xinjiang meeting stiff resistance and the Red Army rampaging through his eastern provinces, China's leader Chiang Kai-shek decided to withdraw from Xinjiang "for the time being." The issue of Urghurstan's independence was raised again when the Chinese Communists took power in 1949, as they too saw Urghurstan as a rebel province. By then, though, Urghurstan had joined the Moscow Pact (in August 1947) and its sovereignty was assured (except for some minor Chinese border incursions during the 1960s and '70s).

[Tophe]

Good model and good (Hi)story...

[PR19_Kit]

What a neat looking build, that roundel is awesome! 

[zenrat]

Another frabjous camo scheme.
Good job comrade.

[Dizzyfugu]

That's nice! 

[Old Wombat]

That's nice! 

+1

[NARSES2]

What a neat looking build, that roundel is awesome! 

It is indeed