Chapter 336 Soviet-Finnish War (5)

Early before the outbreak of World War II, the Soviet Air Force had established a complete bomber force. In this force, there are both TB-3, a four-engine heavy long-range bomber, and some fast and flexible models. The SB-2 fast bomber, nicknamed "Cavalry Bomber", is a member of the Soviet Air Force bomber force at that time.

The two letters "SB" in the SB-2 fast bomber correspond to the first letters of "fast" in Russian. As the name suggests, the foundation of the SB-2 bomber is speed.

In the mid-1930s, in order to improve relations with the Soviet Union, France took the initiative to export a full set of production technology materials for the Hispano-Susa 12Y liquid-cooled engine to the Soviet Union. At the same time, it also provided the Land God-Rhone 14K type 11,000 horsepower double-row air-cooled engine.

The Soviet Union did not choose between these two new French engines, but directly developed the SB-2M100A fast bomber with a liquid-cooled engine and the SB-2M103 fast bomber with an air-cooled engine based on these two French engines. Therefore, in the information about the SB-2 series of fast bombers, there are both models using liquid-cooled engines and models using air-cooled engines.

The SB-2 bomber is positioned as a medium-sized fast bomber with a bomb load of 600 kilograms and a maximum range of 980 kilometers. Compared with the medium bombers of the United States and Germany, it is slightly insufficient, but in actual combat, the bomb load of the SB-2 can reach 900 kilograms.

In terms of protection, the SB-2 has a certain armor defense capability at the beginning of its design, and the fuselage and key internal parts are made of high-strength ferromanganese silicon steel. The self-defense weapons are 4 Soviet-made 62mm machine guns, which can effectively form a self-defense firepower network. The SB-2 bomber has a small crew of only 3 people, and the aircraft is not heavy, with an empty load of 3 tons and a full load weight of just over 5 tons. It can take off and land at relatively simple airports.

Overall, the SB-2 series fast bomber is a fast bomber with very good performance. Some old fighters in the early days of World War II could not even catch up with it, and its performance in several battles such as the Spanish Civil War also proved that this fast bomber did meet the expectations of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning.

Yevgeny, a machine gunner of an SB-2 fast bomber, was discussing this action with his companions. "Leonid, why do you want to attack Finland?"

"For what?" The driver Leonid replied casually while checking the various parameters on the dashboard. "Of course it is to protect the great Leningrad from the invasion of those evil capitalists."

"Invasion?" Yevgeny asked in confusion. "Finland is such a small country, how could it have the courage to invade us?" You have to know that his motherland is a giant with an area of ​​more than 20 million square kilometers and a population of nearly 200 million. Finland, on the other hand, has an area of ​​only a few hundred thousand square kilometers and a population of only a few million. When the two are compared, it is like a polar bear and a little rabbit; even if the rabbit has ten or a hundred courages, it is impossible to dare to provoke a polar bear.

Leonid curled his lips. "Finland dare not provoke us. The higher-ups are worried that people with ulterior motives will threaten us through Finland."

Yevgeny couldn't help but widen his eyes. "Other countries? Are you talking about Germany?" Now most of Europe is under the command of Germany, and it seems that no other country can threaten the Soviet Union except Germany. "But isn't Germany our friendly country?" A few years ago, a German engineering team moved into their village, and he also made a few German friends, so he had a good impression of Germany.

Leonid said impatiently. "Don't say but! These things are not what you and I, small soldiers, should consider. What we should consider is how to complete the task better. Leave the other things to the great leader Comrade Stalin, who will lead us to become stronger!"

"But it doesn't feel good to invade other countries like this." Yevgeny muttered.

"Are you questioning the great leader Comrade Stalin?!" Leonid widened his eyes in surprise. "You kid, are you going to die? Your thoughts are dangerous, don't you know? Be careful that the 'blue hats' are targeting you!" You know, the purge storm is said to be over, but new names are still reported from time to time. If those terrible "blue hats" heard Yevgeny's words, they would be shot on the spot, and he might even be implicated.

"Of course I will not doubt the great leader Comrade Stalin. The great leader will definitely not make mistakes." Yevgeny was also shocked and hurriedly emphasized.

"Then don't think about those miscellaneous things, and do the current task seriously!" After a fierce warning, Leonid saw that the friendly plane in front began to descend, and slowly pushed the joystick to control his bomber to descend, while pushing the throttle to increase the throttle.

Because the current Soviet aviation forces have not widely popularized radio, the commander notified everyone of the action steps before departure.

When they were ten minutes away from the target, each plane began to descend and increase the flight speed to the fastest. Because the Finnish Air Force's equipment was very poor, the strongest fighter it had was the Dutch-made Fokker fighter, which had a maximum flight speed of only 440 kilometers per hour. Although it was a little faster than the SB-2M-103's maximum speed of 423 kilometers per hour, the 17-kilometer speed difference was useless in actual combat.

It was because of this that the commander Anatoly, who led the bomber group, did not wait for the escort fighters and rushed directly to the border.

In fact, the original plan was to have a fighter formation escort them. However, compared to the Germans' rigor, the Soviets were obviously far behind. There was a mistake in the dispatch of planes taking off from dozens of airports, resulting in the bomber group being separated from their escort group by more than ten minutes.

Anatoly did not want to foolishly lead the entire group to circle in the sky waiting for the escort groups, so he simply rushed directly to the border.

The Soviets were full of confidence in this war. To what extent? The Soviet high-level officials thought that as long as the army was sent over, the Finnish workers would revolt in response, and the war preparations could be imagined. Coupled with the purge and the three-fold expansion of the army before the war, there was a serious shortage of capable middle-level officers in the Soviet army.

As for the Finnish air force?

In his opinion, the Finnish air force with less than 100 fighters and bombers in total was simply a joke. Compared with the powerful Soviet Air Force, even if the Finnish Air Force dared to take off and fight, it would be nothing more than a mantis trying to stop a chariot. In addition, this time they launched hundreds of bombers from dozens of airports, so if they were lucky, they could easily complete the mission.

But when they just crossed the border, a storm of tracer bullets suddenly enveloped a bomber and blew it up in mid-air.

"Oh my God! Finnish fighter!"