Pedzisa mutsara unotevera: Iyo regiment yakatanga kuumbwa muna Chivabvu 1938 se12th Fighter Aviation Regiment, chikamu che69th Fighter Aviation Brigade, muKiev Military District kuKirovohrad airfield kubva ku16th Separate Fighter Squadron. Pakutanga akanga akashongedzerwa pamwe Polikarpov I-16 uye Polikarpov I-15bis. Rakarwa mukurwiswa kwePoland neSoviet, uko rakapfura ndege imwe yePoland. Muna April 1940, Captain Pavel Terentyevich Korobkov, Hero of the Soviet Union uye Spanish Civil War achibhururuka ace, akava mutungamiri wehurumende. Muna June, hurumende yakapa kudzivirirwa kwemhepo ku
Kutorwa kweBessarabia neSoviet. Musi wa14 Chikunguru, chikwata ichi chakaendeswa ku15th Mixed Aviation Division. Yakava chikamu 64th Fighter Aviation Division musi 5 January 1941. On 22 June, Lieutenant Leonid Grigoryevich Butelin akapfura pasi mumwe Junkers Ju 88 uye rammed mumwe pamusoro Ivano-Frankivsk Airfield apo kubhururuka ane I-153, regiment wacho wokutanga kunouraya hondo. Butelin akaurayiwa muTaran, nokuda kwaakawana mubayiro weOrder of the Red Banner. Chiremera chakarwa muhondo yeKiev uye chakatumirwa kumashure kuti chiwanezve. Rakanga kuendeswa 11th Reserve Fighter Aviation Regiment uye akanga akashongedzerwazve pamwe zvikuru ano LaGG-3 varwi pana Rostov-on-Don muna October. Kufambira mberi kweGermany kwakamanikidza hurumende kuti idzokere kuKirovabad muAzerbaijan SSR kuti ienderere mberi nekudzidziswa munaNovember. Pashure pokupedza reequipping, wechi akatumirwa kuCrimean Front sezvo chikamu 72nd Fighter Aviation Division uye akarwa kudzivirira Sevastopol. Musi waDecember 26, iyo regiment yakatumidzwa zita re 486th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Mumwedzi inenge mitanhatu yehondo, 12th IAP yakanga yaita 2607 misasa, yakapfura ndege 75 uye yakaparadza ndege 97. Yakanga yarasikirwa nendege 61 uye yakanga ine vatyairi vendege gumi vakaurawa.