Red Army Air Force (VVS) New V VS formations had to be created almost from scratch in early 1942, some formed with Lend-Lease fighters shipped in haste from the United States or Britain However, they were eventually supplied with new and much-improved Soviet warplanes designed by men released from NKVD prisons or camps, built by men and women working in desperate factory conditions in hastily moved or erected plants Starting in May 1942, the Stavka reorganized the whole structure of the V VS The largest Soviet air formation became the air army (“vozdushnaia armiia”), with each attached directly to Fronts or held in a Stavka reserve The first air army created on May was followed by 16 more, with those founded in 1943 and 1944 much larger than the original formations All were multipurpose, comprised of varying numbers of subunits of fighters, bombers, night bombers, and ground-attack aircraft All units were closely tied to control by Front commanders and carried out tactical missions only Some air armies were held in the Stavka reserve, carefully released to create local superiority over major offensive operations More rarely, reserve air armies were assigned a strategic mission A special 18th Air Army was formed in December 1944 A huge force culled from the Stavka reserve, it comprised 18 divisions of long-range bombers and more of regular bombers It carried out deep strikes into Germany, including bombing Berlin Otherwise, revived Soviet air power was used principally in support of ground forces, matching Luftwaffe concentration on close support in the east Nor did the V VS dedicate much of its resources to bombing the Kriegsmarine, which left German ships in the Baltic intact and active deep into March 1945 V VS aircraft were superior in quality and vastly greater in numbers to the opposing, ragged formations of the Luftwaffe by the end of the war Yet, systemic problems continued: as late as 1944 some 8,600 V VS fighters were lost to ground or air accidents, compared to just 4,100 lost to enemy ground fire or fighter interception Below the level of air armies were air corps (“aviatsionnaia korpus”) Soviet air corps were usually single purpose and hence formed exclusively of either bombers or fighters The Luftwaffe equivalent was a Fliegerkorps Soviet air corps were comprised of two or more air divisions, the basic V VS tactical fighting unit The Luftwaffe equivalent was a Fliegerdivision Over the course of the war Soviet air divisions conformed to one of five structures and purposes Prewar and early war formations were known as “basic air divisions.” There were 37 in all Of these, 20 were wholly destroyed while 14 were converted or redistributed to other air units created in a series of emergency air force reforms carried out in 1941–1942 An air regiment (“aviatsionnyi polk”) was the core V VS unit below division-level Each comprised fighters or bombers, but not usually both The prewar V VS had eschewed organization by aircraft function, though some specialization was allowed The core of the V VS was a total of 51 “mixed air divisions,” formed before the war or created during the first year of fighting By 1942 all 51 were destroyed or reformed into the new air armies Seven all-bomber divisions were in place before June 22, 1941 Another 59 bomber divisions were added from 1942 to 1945 This expansion reflected a Soviet wartime shift to uniform aircraft-type formations Similarly, 98 all-fighter divisions were added by 1945 to the original 11 prewar 909