Published 09.05.2024 On June 22, 1941, the radio brought disturbing, terrible news: Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. The war began. On this day off, most of the employees came to the Office of the Hydrometeorological Service of the Kazakh SSR. We exchanged opinions. Everyone understood the gravity of the situation.
The very next day, the military mode of operation was felt.
The weather Bureau and some of the peripheral forecasting agencies immediately switched to wartime mode. A separate group was temporarily organized at the weather bureau, which compiled and transmitted aviation weather forecasts for most air routes in Kazakhstan. A few days later, employees of the OSP (department of the forecast service) went to the places to organize and create the necessary working conditions in the hydrometeorological Bureau (GMB), which were then called the OMS (regional weather stations) and AMSG (civil aviation stations).
The war required an increase in defense spending. Consequently, it was necessary, on the one hand, to strengthen prognostic bodies, and on the other, wherever possible, to make reasonable savings. In view of this, a number of grade II AMSG (without synoptic work) were closed, which were of little importance for aviation maintenance. In most of the locations where the Hydrometeorological Bureau and the AMSG were located, the synoptic groups of these divisions were united and based at airports under the AMSG. They were entrusted with meteorological services for aviation and other sectors of the national economy. Where basing at airports was excluded, weather forecasts for aviation were provided from the hydrometeorological bureau.
In wartime, weather support for military units, aviation and railway transport, and industrial facilities of defense significance became particularly important.
Especially lively during the war were: the southern highway - Alma-Ata -Dzhambul-Shymkent-Turkestan-Dzhusaly-Chelkar-Aktobe-Kuibyshev-Moscow, connecting Kazakhstan and the Central Asian republics with Moscow and the front, and the air route passing from east to west through Petropavlovsk, along which military aviation equipment was moving. Uralsk, Karaganda, Balkhash and Semipalatinsk also carried a heavy load. Seven railways were serviced: Turkestan-Sibirskaya, Karagan-Dinskaya, sections of Tashkent, Ryazan-Uralskaya, South Uralskaya, Omsk and Tomsk. The roads were served with information about the actual weather and weather forecasts, including storm warnings and storm warnings about dangerous weather phenomena for railway transport. Weather supply of railways in wartime was of great importance, since the transportation of military goods and military units was mainly carried out by rail.
In addition, aviation schools were evacuated to Kazakhstan in the autumn of 1941. Divisions of the Chuguev aviation school were located in the Shymkent and Dzhambul regions; Stalingrad and Voroshilovgrad - in Uralsk and Kostanay, in Petropavlovsk - Starobilsk aviation school. The Chuguev Aviation School had its own aviation station, which was located and worked in Shymkent in close contact with the AMSG Shymkent. However, the divisions of the school, located on the territory of two regions with very rugged mountainous terrain, needed local weather support. The AMSG Dzhambul and small AMSG newly organized for this purpose with their own independent synoptic groups - in Sas-Tube, Mankent, Georgievka, Arys and Turkestan (the latter based on the AMSG II category) were involved in meteorological maintenance of these units.
For these units, it was necessary to allocate radio receiving stations with all necessary equipment, meteorological instruments, synoptic guidance and blank material and send specialists-forecasters, radio operators, weather observers and weather map plotters.
This work was completed in a short time.
On the eve of the war, the aerological network of Kazakhstan consisted of 21 points of wind sensing of the atmosphere (balloon pilot points) and points of temperature sensing - at the Alma-Ata Observatory (radiosonding) and aircraft sounding - at the AMSG Alma-Ata and Aktobe. However, forecasters and aviation increasingly needed to expand wind and temperature data at altitudes. In 1943, radiosonding was organized at the AMSG Karaganda. A lot of work on the organization of radiosonding in Karaganda was carried out by A. H. Babkin, who was the first specialist in atmospheric radiosonding in the periphery. Babkin mastered all related professions of AMSG employees and was subsequently promoted to the position of head of AMSG Karaganda. In 1944, radiosonding was organized at the AMSG Semipalatinsk. The development of sharopilot points also continued. In 1941-1942, sharopilot wind stations were opened in Dzharkent (Panfilov), Karsakpai, Betpak-Dal and Bolshenarymsky.
The methodical management of the aerological network was carried out by the Alma-Ata Observatory in the person of its director A.T.Bergun, N.V.Khanevskaya, K.I. Velichko (Bergun) and later N.F.Helmholtz, who were evacuated to Kazakhstan. Initially, Helmholtz worked as an aerologist in Karaganda and Karsakpai. In Karaganda, he provided great assistance in organizing a radiosonding station at the AMSG.
Also at the beginning of the war, employees of the Hydrometeorological Service of the Ukrainian SSR, weather forecasters M.V.Pleskonosova, E.Ya.Shtafinskaya and R.S.Golubov were evacuated to Kazakhstan. Golubov was mobilized into the army, and Pleskonosova and Shtafinskaya worked for the AMSG Ayaguz, then Shtafinskaya was appointed head of the AMSG Karaganda, where she worked throughout the war and did a lot for meteorological aviation.
During the war, the volume of aviation services in terms of the number of flights and air routes increased all the time, the AMSG network continued to develop, but there were not enough forecasters either in the weather bureau or on the periphery. OSP workers were often on duty as forecasters at the weather bureau.
Most forecasters on the periphery had only course training, less often secondary technical and only a few had higher education. The work experience was also small. It was necessary to monitor and provide practical assistance on the ground as often as possible, therefore, inspections of AMSG and GMB were carried out frequently and were lengthy. The inspection trip immediately covered several points "along the chain". The cost of such a business trip was less than if the employee went to one point, returned and then left for the next. At that time, it was allowed to travel on business trips only by train. The inspection of several points "along the chain", although it reduced the travel time, but in general, the travel time of sector employees was most of the year, sometimes up to nine months in total per year. In 1943, T. V. Baltalina and the forecaster of the AMSG Alma-Ata, M. N. Shamassova, were sent to the AMSG Balkhash not only for inspection, but also to work until the staffing of forecasters and the selection of the head of the AMSG.
Baltalina worked as the head of the AMSG, and Shamassova worked as a senior forecaster. In eight months of work at AMSG Balkhash, they established an exemplary order there and provided high-quality aviation services. The main difficulty in the work of forecasters during the war years was the compilation of weather forecasts using a "cropped" map, since there was no data on the actual state of the weather in Europe, and, as is known, in our latitudes synoptic processes and baric formations mainly move from west to east. To provide methodological assistance to the forecasters of the AMSG and GMB, a separate group was created, in which forecasters E.V. Pinevich, E.M.Ilyicheva, senior technician T.G.Minkova (Ershova) worked. This group was headed by engineer L. V. Klimenko. The group was engaged in physical and geographical descriptions of air routes, performed separate work on regional weather forecasting, and compiled methodological guidelines. All this helped the peripheral weather forecasters in their work, contributed to improving the quality of the analysis of aerosynoptic material and increasing the validity of weather forecasts. It should also be noted the great methodological assistance provided by specialists T. M. Tauber and E. M. Baibakova evacuated to Alma-Ata. Tauber compiled a large synoptic reference book for AMSG with all kinds of tables, which were used and guided by all AMSG forecasters.
The vast majority of bosses, forecasters, technicians, radio operators, aerologists and other employees of the AMSG worked under difficult conditions during the war with full dedication. In addition to the previously mentioned comrades, it should be noted the good work of the head of the AMSG Alma-Ata A. I. Bystrova, flight aerologists P. G. Chernysheva, M. M. Krivosheina, the head of the AMSG Aktobe A. P. Kalechitsa, who replaced him S. T. Sultanov, flight aerologist of the same AMSG 3. P. Ozhiganova and many, many others. Many comrades were awarded medals "For the victory over Germany", diplomas of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR and other awards.
Employees of the OSP, the aviation and national economy service sector, the entire management apparatus (chief I. F. Porfiriev), heads of departments and sectors worked with heavy workload throughout the war period and, as a rule, not only during the daytime, but also every evening. It was a requirement of the time and the setting.
Among other things, regular information on the work done was needed for the Main Directorate of the Hydrometeorological Service of the Red Army. During the war, the head of the Department Porfiriev paid exceptional attention to the organization of aviation services and provided assistance in the work of the OSP and the aviation service sector and the national economy. In 1942 and 1943.
The Department of the Hydrometeorological Service of the Kazakh SSR for high performance in aviation maintenance was twice awarded the Red Banner of the Main Directorate of the Hydrometeorological Service of the Red Army and the Central Committee of the Aviation Workers' Union, and the head of the Department I. F. Porfiriev - the Orders of the Badge of Honor and the Patriotic War of the First degree.