Khalkhin-Gol Air Battles

May 18, 2005

Based on materials of [1]

100^th Mixed Aircraft Brigade/57^th Special Corps (Colonel Kalinychev)
- 70^th Fighter Regiment (Major Zabaluev)
Strength on the middle of May: 14 I-15bis + 24 I-16

150^thMixed Bomber Regiment (Major Burmistrov)

Strength on the middle of May:

two squadrons of LSh-5 (R-5Sh) –ground attack modification of R-5 recon plane. They were equipped with 4 additional "ShKAS" machine-guns on the lower wings;

three squadrons of a new SB bombers.

Bombers were based in Bain-Tumen area and fighters – in Tamsag-Bulak airfield (also called Tamtsag-Bulak and Tamsak-Bulak)

All I-16 were of old I-16 Mod. 5, equipped with 2 machine-guns. They had no armoring of a pilot’s seat-back. All types of aircrafts (except SB) were old and shabby. On May 20 there were only 13 operable I-16 and 9 I-15bis.

Only 40% of pilots were training. The others were ill or absent.

Mongolian Air Forces had one mixed aircraft regiment equipped with 36 R-5 and R-5Sh. It based on Matat-Somon airfield.

In the end of May, the Soviet Air Forces in Mongolia were reinforced with the 23^rd Aircraft Brigade.

23^rd Aircraft Brigade Major, (later Colonel) Kutsevalov
- 22^nd Fighter Regiment (Major Glazykin)
28 I-16 mod. 10 + 35 I-15bis. (Redeployed in May 23.)
- 38^thHigh-Speed Bomber Regiment (Capt. Artamonov)
59 SB bombers (redeployed a bit later)

The quality of the aircrafts of the 23^rd Brigade was well, but pilots qualification was unsatisfactory.

On May 27 the Soviet aircraft units strength was: 99 fighters (48 I-15bis + 51 I-16), 88 SB bombers and 16 R-5 light battleplanes. It should be noted that Soviet bombers didn’t take part in May fights.

Soviet Aviation losses from May 20 till May 31, 1939

Type	Battle casualties	Non-battle losses	Total
I-16	4	1	5
I-15bis (I-152)	12	1	13
SB	-	1	1
R-5	1	1	2
Total	17	4	21

Soviet Aviation Strength on June 21, 1939

Unit	I-16	I-15bis (I-152)	SB	R-5Sh	Total
70^th Fighter Regiment	60	24	-	-	84
22^nd Fighter Regiment	35	32	-	-	67
38^th High-Speed Bomber Regiment	-	-	59	-	59
150^th Mixed Bomber Regiment	-	-	76*	15	91
Total	95	56	135	15	301

* - including 26 modified ones equipped with M-103 motors and three-bladed propellers of variable pitch. On 76 planes of this regiment there were only 57 trained crews. In others there were no gunner-radio operators.

Soviet Aviation losses in June

Type	Battle casualties	Non-battle losses	Total
I-16	15	2	17
I-15bis (I-152)	29	2	31
SB	-	1	1
Total	44	5	49

Soviet Aviation Strength on July 01, 1939*

Unit	I-16	I-15bis (I-152)	SB	R-5Sh	Total
70^th Fighter Regiment	40	20	-	-	60
22^nd Fighter Regiment	53	25	-	-	78
38^th High-Speed Bomber Regiment	-	-	59	-	59
150^th Mixed Bomber Regiment	-	-	73	10	83
Total	93	45	132	10	280

*-Operable only

Soviet Aviation losses in July

Type	Battle casualties	Non-battle losses	Total
I-16	39	2	41
I-15bis (I-152)	15	1	16
I-153	1	1	2
SB	24	4	28
TB-3	-	1	1
Total	79	9	88

Soviet Aviation Strength on August 01, 1939

Unit	I-15bis	I-153	I-16	SB	TB-3	R-5	Total
22^nd Fighter Regiment	1	13	32	-	-	-	46
56^th Fighter Regiment	13	24	64	-	-	-	101
70^th Fighter Regiment	2	30	77	-	-	-	109
Airfields’ Defense Groups	41	3	21	-	-	-	65
Total fighters	57	70	194	-	-	-	321
38^th High-Speed Bomber Regiment	-	-	-	53	-	-	53
56^th High-Speed Bomber Regiment	-	-	-	57	-	-	57
150^th Mixed Bomber Regiment	-	-	-	71	-	-	71
TB-3 group	-	-	-	-	23	-	23
Mongolian Aircraft Squadron	-	-	-	-	-	7	7
Total Bombers	-	-	-	181	23	7	211
Total							532

Strength of Air Forces of the 1^stArmy Group on August 17, 1939 Operable/defective aircrafts

Unit	I-16	I-16P*	I-153	I-15bis	SB	TB-3	Total
22^nd Fighter Regiment	58/5	7/1	10/3	1/0	-	-	76/9
56^th Fighter Regiment	40/10	10/1	14/2	18/0	-	-	82/13
70^th Fighter Regiment	73/6	-	11/1	0/3	-	-	84/10
Matat-Somon squadron	-	-	-	24/0	-	-	24/0
SB bombers	-	-	-	-	174/13	-	174/13
TB-3	-	-	-	-	-	22/0	22/0
Bain-Tumen	3/0	-	-	11/0	-	-	14/0
Total	174/21	17/2	35/6	54/3	174/13	22/0	476/45

*-I-16 equipped with guns

Strength of Air Forces of the 1^stArmy Group on August 20, 1939

Unit	I-16*	I-153	I-15bis	SB	TB-3	Total
22^nd Fighter Regiment	82	13	1	-	-	96
56^th Fighter Regiment	64	24	18	-	-	106
70^th Fighter Regiment	77	30	2	-	-	109
SB bombers	-	-	-	181	-	181
TB-3	-	-	-	-	23	23
Airfields’ defense groups	21	3	41	-	-	65
Total	244	70	62	181	23	580

*-Including gun modifications

Soviet Aviation losses in August

Type	Battle casualties	Non-battle losses	Total
I-16	21	16	37
I-16P	2	-	2
I-15bis (I-152)	4	1	5
I-153	7	4	11
SB	20	2	22
Total	54	23	77

Soviet Aviation losses from September 01, till September 16, 1939

Type	Battle casualties	Non-battle losses	Total
I-16	4	1	5
I-16P	2	-	2
I-153	8	1	9
Total	14	2	16

Total Soviet Aviation losses

Type	Battle casualties	Non-battle losses	Total
I-16	83	22	105
I-16P	4	-	4
I-15bis (I-152)	60	5	65
I-153	16	6	22
SB	44	8	52
TB-3	-	1	1
Total	207	42	249

Literature

V. Kondratyev, "Khalkhin-Gol. Voyna v Vozdukhe", Moscow, Technika-Molodezhi, "Aviation" serie, 2002.