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Factory No. 22
At a lecture for the factory’s managerial staff in 1932, I heard an instructor from
the Air Force Academy assert that hundreds of TB-3 bombers flying in a solid
formation would protect one another against fighters. Dropping thousands of
high-explosive and incendiary bombs, they would ensure strategic success. General
victory would be guaranteed.
During the production process, in addition to replacing the engines, the TB-3
aircraft underwent other updates that entailed changes to its weapons,bomb payload,
and chassis design.TB-3 airplanes set several world records for altitude while carrying
large loads.The arctic version of the aircraft became world-renowned after the
landing of Ivan Dmitriyevich Papanin’s expedition on the North Pole in 1937. 6
Factory No. 22 produced more than 800 TB-3 bombers between 1932 and
1937. In 1939, the aircraft gained fame in combat at Khalkhin-Gol. 7 This was the
last successful use of the TB-3. At the beginning of World War II, German fighter
planes annihilated the TB-3 bombers with impunity.TB-3s flying in formation at
low altitude, each equipped with five small-caliber machine guns, proved powerless
when under attack by maneuverable Messerschmitt-109 fighters armed with rapidfiring
guns. Douhet’s doctrine also failed to vindicate itself when a large number of
American Flying Fortresses appeared on the scene.They delivered sensitive strikes
against German cities in the rear, but could not break the German war machine.
The infantry forces and tactical air force of the USSR accomplished this goal.
By the way, if we had started World War II rather than the Germans, and in 1937
rather than in 1939, it is possible that 600–700 TB-3s might have saved the world
from Nazi aggression. But in 1937 Stalin was too carried away with the struggle
against “enemies of the people.”This saved Hitler.
but let’s return to the history of the factory. In 1927, Sergey Petrovich
Gorbunov, a twenty-five-year-old graduate of the N.Ye. Zhukovskiy Red Army
Air Force Academy, was appointed chief of the factory technical bureau—which
today would be called the chief production engineer’s department. He had already
done practical work at the factory when the Germans were there in 1924. During
his studies at the Academy he demonstrated brilliant capabilities. Sergey Gorbunov
could have become an outstanding aircraft designer. Before he entered the
academy, Gorbunov was a Komsomol secretary, and then secretary of the Party
organization in Zaraysk uyezd,Ryazan province. 8 He was a delegate to the Third
6. Pananin and three others established the first drifting base near the North Pole in 1937–38.
7. The Khalkin-Gol engagement, also known as the Nomonhan incident, was a major confrontation
between Soviet and Japanese forces in Mongolia.
8. Komsomol, which stood for Kommunisticheskiy Soyuz Molodezhi (Young Communist League of the Soviet
Union), was a massive Communist youth organization established during the Soviet era. Most major institutions
in Soviet society, such as Factory No. 22, had their own Komsomol organizations. Such entities were involved in
fostering social and youthful activities that celebrated Communist rule. Komsomol organizations also had significant
influence over personnel appointments at factories since they were asked to provide character references
for workers. Uyezd is the Russian word for an administrative unit within a province.
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