Page 59 - The Chief Culprit

36 y e Chief Culprit

came the first country in the world to create a heavy bomber corps. In January 1936, the first
aviation army was created, a second army in March, and a third aviation army a bit later. No
other nation at the time had either an aviation army or even a corps of strategic aviation. A
fleet of a thousand heavy bombers is a strategist’s dream, and this dream materialized first in
the Soviet Union. Generals and politicians of all nations disputed the doctrine of the Italian
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air power theorist General Giulio Douhet, a strong proponent of strategic bombing. Only
Stalin did not argue.
But that is not all: the plans were for rearming three aviation armies with the new-
est bombers and additionally deploying three more armies in the Byelorussia, Kiev, and
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Leningrad military districts. While the TB-3 was “learning to fly,” while it was being “put
on its wings,” approximately ten design bureaus were already engaged in fierce competition to
receive the order for the newest strategic bomber, which would come to replace one thousand
of Tupolev’s TB-1s and TB-3s. Tupolev himself proposed the eight-engine Maxim Gorky.
Only one model was built as a show piece to be flown over parades, awing the crowds with
its dimensions. Maxim Gorky crashed in 1935, after a mid-air collision with a small escort
plane. irty-seven people—the passengers and crew of both aircraft—died. A conspiracy
theory has arisen alleging that the pilot of the escort plane deliberately rammed the Maxim
Gorky because he believed Stalin was aboard.
Pavel Sukhoi proposed a one-motor long-distance bomber, the DB-1, with an incred-
ibly large wingspan. e DB stands for Dal’nyi Bombardirovshik, which means “long-distance
bomber.” is plane (under a different name) completed several flights across the North
Pole to America. America greeted Soviet pilots as heroes, not understanding that they were
running tests of an experimental bomber. Sergei Kozlov proposed a twelve-motor “Ghigant”
(Giant), capable of lifting several tens of tons of bombs, and of delivering to the enemy’s rear
paratroop divisions complete with any heavy artillery, including tanks.
Bolkhovitinov proposed a heavy bomber, the DB-A. ough it looked like a new air-
plane in design and description, it is a remodeling of the TB-3. is is a classic example of
how a new airplane can be created with minimal expenditures, at the same factories that
produced the old models. e DB-A broke four world records. It was the newest plane, but
it could be produced by the same factories that put out the TB-3, without rebuilding the
assembly lines, without changing equipment, without disrupting the established production
flow, without retraining workers and engineers—in short, without the usual reduction in
output and even without the need to retrain pilots, technicians, or engineers. If time was an
issue, it was possible to launch a series of DB-As and fully renew the strategic aviation fleet
by the start of World War II. But then a new, true miracle appeared—Petliakov’s TB-7. e
TB-7 eclipsed all other models.
By the time the TB-7 appeared, production of heavy bombers was as perfected in the
Soviet Union as Henry Ford’s production of automobiles had become in the United States.
Changing a model is usually a difficult process, but it is simpler than creating a new model
from scratch. During those horrible years, when millions died of hunger, the Soviet Union
was first in the world in production of heavy bombers. en, when the economy had some-
what improved, the country suddenly voluntarily backed away from its first-place position in
this field. When no one threatened the nation, it took bread from dying children to continue
to build heavy bombers. But when Hitler appeared nearby, and war came within sight, the
production of heavy bombers was halted.