Chapter 788 German-Soviet War (90)

Ding-ling-ling! Ding-ling-ling!

The telephone at the Moscow Air Defense Command Center rang rapidly.

The officer on duty picked up the phone, and an anxious voice came from the other end. "Report, this is observation post No. 54. A group of German bombers has been spotted, about fifty or so! Flying to Moscow!"

At this time, air defense radars supported by the Americans had been deployed around Moscow, but the detection range of these radars was limited, so the Soviets also arranged a number of observation posts.

As for the Soviet Union's own radar, it was not that it did not exist, but it was only because of the short time invested in research and development, and the previous exclusion of the Soviet Union by European and American countries in terms of technology, and other reasons, it was indeed not comparable to countries such as Britain, Germany, and the United States. The first domestically produced RUS-1 radar was delivered to the Soviet army in 1939, but due to technical reasons, its dual-base working principle made the layout of its tension antenna very complicated, and it was completely unpractical on the battlefield.

It was not until the end of 1940 that the first "practical" RUS-2 radar was discontinued and accepted by the Soviet army. So far, less than ten have been built, and their performance is not as good as that of American radars. However, these radars still played a certain role in the Soviet-German battlefield in the original time and space. For example, when the German army attacked Moscow in July 1941, it detected about 200 bombers attacking Moscow in advance, giving the Soviet Union the opportunity to prepare air defense forces in advance. Only a few bombers broke through the air defense circle, causing very limited damage to Moscow, laying a good foundation for the morale and logistics of the Moscow Defense War in September.

"Got it." The officer sighed depressedly. The German bomber group attacked every hour every day. Even if there was no advance warning, they knew it was coming. Press the air defense alarm button casually, and soon, the shrill air defense alarm sounded over the whole Moscow.

On the air defense position outside Moscow, the gunners ran quickly to their respective gun positions.

"Comrade squad leader, isn't this a pure waste of shells?" A loader holding a shell on a gun position couldn't help asking. The German bombers were flying at an altitude of more than 10,000 meters. Their anti-aircraft guns could not reach that high, and firing was a waste of ammunition!

The Soviet Union did not have any large-caliber anti-aircraft guns during World War II (probably because Germany did not have heavy strategic bombers during World War II). The mainstream ones were only the 71931 anti-aircraft gun, the 71938 anti-aircraft gun, and the 85mm caliber M1939 (52-K) anti-aircraft gun.

Among them, the 76mm M1931 anti-aircraft gun was developed with the full set of 75mm FLAK 59 anti-aircraft gun technology purchased from the German Rheinmetall Company in the early 1930s. Later, it was improved and became the M1938 model. The performance of these two anti-aircraft guns is almost the same. Compared with the M1931, the biggest improvement of the M1938 is the weight reduction.

The 85mm caliber M1939 (52-K) anti-aircraft gun is the final model of the Soviet anti-aircraft gun during World War II, and is a competitor to the German 88mm anti-aircraft gun. But unlike the Germans who always used anti-aircraft guns to attack tanks, the use of M1939 was much more normal. When fighting against bombers and high-altitude targets, M1939 played an obvious role; it was only used as an anti-tank weapon when the situation was critical. After the war, many M1939s were used as anti-avalanche guns, which was a good use.

It was not until the end of World War II that aviation technology developed in the direction of jets, and the flight speed and altitude of bombers had formed a generation gap with propeller aircraft. The Soviet Union began to develop heavy anti-aircraft guns with a caliber of more than 100mm. In that period when anti-aircraft missile technology was not yet mature, developing large-caliber anti-aircraft guns to deal with high-altitude threats was a good way.

They developed the KS-30 130mm large-caliber anti-aircraft gun based on the German Rheinmetall 128mm FLAK40 anti-aircraft gun, but because the Soviet Union had no experience in developing large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, the development work was somewhat delayed, and it was not until the end of 1949 that four sample guns were produced. These sample guns also exposed many problems, such as unreasonable gun mount structure and unqualified power system.

When the development of the KS-30 anti-aircraft gun achieved initial results, a 152mm anti-aircraft gun based on the gun was also under development. This is the KM-52. Not only is its shell heavier, but it will also use rocket-assisted shells to increase the effective firing height. However, it was terminated after the initial design was completed in 1957. At that time, the Soviet high-level officials had realized the limitations of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns. Conventional anti-aircraft guns posed less and less threat to large jet bombers. Missiles and fighters can kill them more effectively. Anti-aircraft guns began to transition to small and medium calibers and automation. Self-propelled anti-aircraft guns such as the Shilka River began to become new favorites.

Now that the Americans have successfully developed 150mm heavy anti-aircraft guns, the anti-aircraft guns they have built are not enough for the United States itself. How can they support the Soviet Union? They only supported the drawings of 150mm anti-aircraft guns. However, it is simply a fantasy to build such a sophisticated heavy anti-aircraft gun with the Soviet industrial technology.

The squad leader sighed. Everyone knew that their shells could not reach the German aircraft group; but there was an order from above, what could he do? At least he had to fire a few shells to show his respect.

Soon a black spot appeared in the sky in the distance.

"Direction due south! Angle 55! Prepare to fire!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" The anti-aircraft artillery positions on the ground roared, and shells were fired into the sky. Clouds of gray-black smoke burst out in the sky, and countless anti-aircraft shells exploded in the blue sky. This scene really boosted the morale of the soldiers on the ground! Seeing their own dense anti-aircraft firepower, everyone felt more at ease.

Unfortunately, the German high-altitude bomber formation ignored the artillery fire below the ground and flew over the anti-aircraft artillery positions and came to the sky over the city of Moscow.

One bomber after another opened the bomb bay, and the aerial bombs poured down like raindrops, falling rapidly to the ground with a unique sharp whistle.

"Boom boom boom!" Amid the deafening explosion, the earth shook violently.

The artillerymen on the anti-aircraft artillery positions looked helplessly at the smoke rising from the distant Moscow city.

"These damn Germans will bomb Berlin to the ground sooner or later!" Many gunners cursed with gritted teeth. They had repeated this oath countless times, but the current war situation was getting worse and worse. Although there was no official notification from the top, there were always some well-informed people no matter where they were. They also learned about the surrender of Smolensk, so the German army was only 400 kilometers away from them.

Soon, the German bomber group dropped all the bombs they carried and began to return. The ground anti-aircraft positions launched another meaningless counterattack, and in the end they could only watch the German bomber group gradually go away.

"Clear the barrel!"