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Rockets and People
standard armaments and used only for military transport, or at most, for airborne
operations. However, during the first days of the war, in the general confusion,
squadrons of TB-3s were fecklessly hurled against attacking German columns.They
became easy and safe prey for Me-109s. By that time, Me-109s were equipped with
20-millimeter guns and had a maximum speed of 570 kilometers per hour, as
compared to the 7.62-millimeter machine guns on the TB-3s, whose maximum
speed was 250 kilometers per hour! Even the new Tupolev TB-7, which could
reach speeds up to 430 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 8,600 meters, could
not break away from Me-109s at middle altitudes. Our DB-As were also incapable
of flying away from Messerschmitts at low altitudes.
The bombers could be saved at a high altitude, where bombing accuracy
sharply deteriorated, or under cover provided by our own fighters. Our fighters,
however, were not capable of accompanying the heavy bombers round-trip, or of
fighting along the way.The flight range for bombers by 1935 had reached 2,800
kilometers (for the Boeing B-17), but the range for fighters was barely 600 kilometers.That
is why the discussion was extremely heated as to whether there was
a need for a large bomber fleet comprised of heavy and long-range bombers.
Subsequent events showed that, in and of themselves, bombers were not capable of
providing supremacy in the air given a well-organized anti-aircraft defense. Moreover,
the strategic bombing of Germany did not have a decisive influence on the
course of the war. Douhet’s theory did not prove its value during World War II.
Supremacy in the air was gained using fast, well-armed, high-speed fighters; highspeed
bombers; dive-bombers; and ground attack aircraft.
The discussion then at Fili with Alksnis three and a half years before the beginning
of World War II essentially had to do with the role of the strategic air force
in a future war. For some reason, the fact that a war was inevitable did not disturb
any of us.We all believed that this was the natural development of the historical
process of the world’s first proletarian dictatorship’s struggle with the hostile, capitalist
world.
Bolkhovitinov and those around him, and for that matter the entire Air Force
leadership, understood that the 800-plus TB-3s had seen their day and that the
future was for aircraft like the Flying Fortress, the American giant with four 1,200horsepower
engines and a takeoff weight of 26,760 kilograms. It was armed with
thirteen large-caliber (12.7-millimeter) machine guns and carried over 2,700 kilograms
of bombs at a range of 2,730 kilometers. The crew included five gunners
who were supposed to provide 360-degree protection against fighters.The intention
was that when a large number of these Fortresses were flying in formation,
supporting one another, they would create a curtain of fire that was impenetrable
to fighters.That was the reasoning of the Americans who designed the B-17, and
that is what our theoreticians thought.
Agreeing that the obsolete TB-3s needed to be replaced and that there was
clearly no need for such monsters as the TB-4, Alksnis then spoke in favor of
combining the properties of a bomber and a fighter.This was the first time I had
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