Page 55 - The Chief Culprit

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Stalin and the Destruction of

Soviet Strategic Aviation

Given the existence of a massive invasion army, the main task of the air force is to support
the advancement of this army, for which all forces must be concentrated.
—B C A L, THE AIR ARMY

talin could have averted World War II with one stroke of his pen. He had many such
opportunities. Here is one of them: In 1936, the Soviet Union developed the heavy
Shigh-speed, high-altitude bomber TB-7 (later renamed Pe-8). Here are reviews of it:
Air Force Major General P. Stefanovsky, test-pilot of the TB-7: “ e multi-ton ship
surpassed in its flight capabilities at an altitude of ten kilometers all the best European fight-
ers of its time.” 1
Air Force Major General V. Shumikhin: “At altitudes above 10,000 meters the TB-7
could not be reached by the majority of existing fighters at that time, and the ceiling of
12,000 meters made it untouchable even by anti-aircraft artillery.”
2
Airplane designer V. Shavrov: “A remarkable airplane. It was on the TB-7 that the first
five-ton bombs were lifted, earlier than in the United States or in England.” 3
Professor L. Kerber: “ is machine had a strong defense system consisting of 20-mm
cannons and 12.7-mm heavy machine guns. Bombs of the largest caliber could fit in the
large bomb compartment. . . . [It was] unreachable at maximum altitude of its flight by anti-
aircraft cannons and fighters of that time. e TB-7 was the most powerful bomber in the
world.” “A record-setting plane. . . . Now, we have every reason to assert that the TB-7 was
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more powerful than the American flying fortress B-17.” 5
Historians agree with such appraisals. John V. R. Taylor: “At heights of 26,250 to
29,500 feet its speed surpassed the speed of German Me-109 and He-112 fighters.” Vaclav
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Nemecek: “ is machine had an incredibly long life. In the fifties, one could still encounter
[some of] these planes on polar routes, where they were used for transporting cargo.” ere
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is no need to prove that only good planes live and fly for such a long time.
e remarkable qualities of the TB-7 were demonstrated to Western experts in the
spring of 1942, when the arrival of a Soviet delegation headed by Molotov was awaited in the

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