Soviet Forces

Lavochkin Gorbunov Goudkov LaGG3

Unlike its Western contemporaries the LaGG 3 fighter was designed to be built using “non strategic” materials. The structure was wooden covered with Bakelite lacquer, which meant it was not only cheaper than metal, but resistant to rot and fire. Originally designed with the new Ki-106 engine in mind, it had to switch to the lower powered Ki-105 when the new powerplant proved unreliable. As a result, it was simply too heavy for its own airframe. Nonetheless, it carried powerful armament and was certainly more advanced than any other fighter in the VVS (Soviet Air Force) inventory, and Stalin ordered mass production. During the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR, the Luftwaffe simply ran riot over the poorly trained and equipped VVS. Stalin’s purges had left a crippled command structure unwilling or unable to react. German pilots began to rake up victories with such ease that they began to refer to it as infanticide. The LaGG was too slow and lacked a rate of climb necessary for an interceptor. Its handling was also taxing, and could enter a vicious spin if it turned too tightly. The wooden frame may have been strong but was too heavy and prone to shattering when hit by cannon fire. It became a deeply unpopular machine; the name was an abbreviation of the principal designers, but pilots grimly joked it stood for lakirovanny garantirovanny grob, or guaranteed varnished coffin. 6,258 versions had been built by the time production was halted. This was not, however, quite the end of the road for the LaGG family. Fitted a lightened airframe, cut down fuselage, and a more powerful radial engine it became the La-5, one of the best Soviet fighters of the war.