Curtiss Kittyhawks in the Soviet Far North Volume 2: Reconnaissance, Ground Support, and Final Missions, 1944-1945

This second volume in Andrey Latkin’s groundbreaking study of the Curtiss Kittyhawk in Soviet service offers the most detailed account yet published in English of the aircraft’s evolution from frontline fighter to versatile multirole platform in the harsh and often overlooked Arctic theatre of the Second World War.

Building on the story told in Volume 1, which focused on the Kittyhawk’s air-to-air combat role during 1942–43, this volume explores its increasingly vital employment from late 1943 through to the end of the war—as a fighter-bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, and close-support platform. As the war intensified in the Soviet Far North, Kittyhawks played a critical role in maritime interdiction, tactical bombing, and convoy strikes, particularly during the extensive Soviet offensives against German forces in northern Norway and Finland.

Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped archival material,including combat flight logs, official reports, pilot debriefings, gun camera footage, and extensive documentation from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, Latkin reconstructs day-by-day accounts of key missions. These are vividly illustrated with maps and supported by comparative analysis with German reports from the NARA archives in the United States, offering insight into enemy perceptions and recorded damage. The result is a unique, dual-perspective operational history that gives voice to both sides of the conflict.

Particular attention is paid to the innovative and risky tactics employed by Soviet pilots—such as low-level skip-bombing against shipping and daring strikes against heavily defended targets like Kirkenes and Liinahamari—as well as the logistical adaptations required to sustain operations in the Arctic Circle. The narrative also brings to life the individual stories of the airmen who flew these missions, many of whom were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. An appendix records Kittyhawk losses not mentioned in the main text, filling important gaps in the historical record.

The volume is richly illustrated with rare wartime photographs, aerial reconnaissance images, and specially commissioned full-colour profile artwork by Andrey Yurgenson, offering readers a comprehensive visual and technical overview of the aircraft and its various combat configurations.

A compelling and authoritative contribution to the literature of the Eastern Front and Second World War aviation, this book will be indispensable to military historians, aviation enthusiasts, and scholars of Allied-Soviet cooperation. It stands as an important English-language account of one of the most challenging and least understood campaigns of the war—where extreme weather, rugged terrain, and relentless enemy opposition made every mission a feat of courage and endurance.