Chapter 622 Georgia (13)

Moscow, Kremlin.

The atmosphere in the entire conference room was suffocating, as if an invisible mountain was pressing down on everyone.

Stalin's hand holding the big pipe trembled slightly. "Does that mean the Black Sea has fallen?"

Kuznetsov wiped the sweat off his face frequently. After all, it was he who had vowed to severely damage the German fleet. But the result was that the Black Sea Fleet was annihilated, and the fighter planes sent out suffered heavy losses.

He never dreamed that the anti-aircraft firepower of the German fleet would be so strong. According to the news sent back, the carrier-based aircraft in the German fleet did not even go into battle. The anti-aircraft artillery on the warships alone destroyed more than 500 of their own fighter planes. It was terrible!

In addition to being horrified, Znetsov was also heartbroken. He had been thinking about how to meet an inevitable air battle a long time ago. Every naval pilot under him had undergone long-range raid training at sea and had more than 200 hours of fighter flying experience. As a result, more than half of these excellent pilots were lost in this operation, which almost made him spit out blood.

However, he could not admit his failure and said firmly. "Comrade Stalin, although the surface ships of the Black Sea Fleet were severely damaged, the Black Sea Fleet still has many submarines." As mentioned earlier, the Soviet Navy built many submarines before the war. Now the Black Sea Fleet has 47 submarines, of which about 30 can be put into combat.

The Paris Commune, battleships and Voroshilov were sunk by German submarines. Since the Germans can use submarines, the Soviet Union can also use submarines! "I will send submarine forces to let the Germans know how powerful our submarines are!"

Stalin nodded expressionlessly and looked to the other side. "Comrade Hripin, how are the preparations for bombing the Baku oil fields?"

Hripin's full name is Vasily Vladimirovich Hripin. He has served as the captain of the fighter aviation brigade, the commander of the army air force, and the chief of staff of the front air force. After forming the Soviet Heavy Bomber Forces Special Mission Army, he was in charge of long-range aviation.

Khripin reported. "Comrade Stalin, I have assembled 300 TB-3 and 100 TB-7 bombers."

TB-3 is a heavy bomber developed since 1930. Straight wings, fixed landing gear, wing skin is varnished cloth, and fuselage skin is corrugated aluminum sheet.

On April 28, 1932, the first batch of 10 TB-3s were delivered to the troops at Moscow Central Airport, ready to participate in the military parade on Red Square on May 1. As a result, it was discovered on April 30 that the engine radiators of all 10 aircraft were leaking. In order not to affect the military parade, water tanks were filled on 7 aircraft with less serious leaks, and 4 mechanics were added to take turns to shake the manual water pump to add cooling water to the radiator, which coped with the military parade the next day.

These huge and terrifying monsters fully demonstrated the powerful combat power of the Soviet Red Army Air Force. The Soviet high-level officials intended to use this to make the world reach a consensus: the Soviet Red Army is extremely powerful and invincible.

Soon after, the Soviet Revolutionary Military Committee passed the "Principles of Organization of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Air Force", emphasizing the need to establish a powerful heavy bomber corps. In 1933, the Soviet Union began to form a long-range aviation army, and by 1935 it had 400 TB-3s. In May 1938, three special mission aviation corps were established, each with two heavy bomber aviation brigades, each with 150-170 TB-3 aircraft. It became the largest heavy bomber force in the world at that time.

But a few years later, as the anti-counterrevolutionary campaign expanded, the main leaders of the Air Force were purged and the aircraft designer was imprisoned. The operational guiding ideology of the Air Force changed from independent combat of the Air Force to supporting ground forces, and there was no new model of heavy bomber to replace TB-3.

Imagine if the Soviet Union had a strategic bombing force of hundreds of advanced heavy bombers in 1940, it would obviously have had much more favorable conditions at the beginning of the war. In 1942, Stalin realized this problem and admitted that "we did not form a bombing aviation force. To some extent, we ignored this problem", but the consequences could not be corrected.

TB-7 was developed on the basis of the ANT-42 prototype. It began to be manufactured in 1939 and was officially numbered 18. It used M-30B/AcH-30B diesel engines, but its performance was unreliable. After the AM-5A engine was discontinued, M-82 and M-82FN radial air-cooled engines were used. Because the Soviet military had little interest in heavy bombers, Pe-8 failed to continue to develop. After the war, the remaining 30 Pe-8s were used until the end of the 1950s.

It can be said that TB-3 and TB-7 were both unsuccessful models in terms of production and use.

Stalin was worried that daytime bombing would be intercepted by German fighters, so he decided to carry out night bombing. However, the Soviet air force lacked experience in night bombing, so it was hard to say whether it would succeed.

Beria on the side said respectfully. "Comrade Stalin, our people will light fires on the ground to guide the position at night."

Stalin puffed on his big pipe until he finished a pot before speaking. "Can we bomb Berlin?" Using his own bombers to bomb his own land, especially the oil fields that were regarded as the lifeline, made Stalin's heart boil with anger and eager for revenge; and the best revenge was to bomb Berlin!

Bomb Berlin? You thought of that. Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, and Kuznetsov stood up. "Comrade Stalin, our naval aviation will definitely accomplish this difficult and great task!"

"!!" The people around him looked at Kuznetsov in shock, wondering why he suddenly went crazy. How could he handle such a thing?

Stalin seemed surprised, raised his eyebrows slightly, and nodded. "Very good, Comrade Kuznetsov, then draw up a plan to bomb Berlin as soon as possible. Today's meeting ends here. Dismiss."

The meeting ended and everyone left the meeting room.

Walking out of the Kremlin, Khripin grabbed Kuznetsov and asked. "Comrade Kuznetsov, did you have a plan to bomb Berlin?"

Kuznetsov sighed lightly and said helplessly. "I don't have any plans, but I have to make amends." The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Oktyabriski, sank into the sea with the battleship Paris Commune; the deputy commander Gorshkov was blown to pieces along with the headquarters building under the attack of German attack aircraft; the failure of the Black Sea Fleet's operations naturally had to be borne by him, the commander-in-chief of the navy.

Hripin scolded. "Are you crazy?! Even if your air force can really drop bombs on Berlin, have you ever thought about the consequences of the bombing? The German bombers can even bomb Washington, the United States. Moscow is less than 2,000 kilometers away from Germany. If we start this, it will inevitably attract crazy revenge from the German army, and Moscow will never have peace in the future!!"

Kuznetsov couldn't help but open his mouth wide. He was too eager to make amends and didn't even think of this level!