WAR SECRET

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1941, Page 7

WAR SECRET

STRENGTH AND CAPABILITIES OF RUSSIA’S AIR FORCE PRECAUTIONS BEFORE CONFLICT STARTED. GERMANS DESTROY DUMMY PLANES. The best kept secret of the war to date has been the strength and capabilities of the Red Air Force. Only now is it possible to give an authentic account of the other R.A.F., from information now in London. This account does not pretend to estimate its size. Guesses at the numbers of Soviet ’planes have ranged from 10,000 to 60,000. Always before the German invasion experts said the Red ’planes were poor stuff. The ’planes they used in Spain have been described as “rather inferior to the Italian types.” But Stalin did not send his best ’planes to Spain. He would not give their secrets away. He saw what was coming and held his latest fighters and bombers back. Even against Finland he did not allow his newest fighter or his latest bomber to be seen. The Russians have a plane which looks like the Spitfire, approximates to it in speed, and carries the same armament as the Spitfire, which won the Battle of Britain—eight machineguns. But before talking about fighters I must tell of the Russian Air Force strategy, because if this strategy had not been developed before the war and kept a secret the great Soviet air fleets would probably have been wiped out within the first few days of Hitler’s invasion.

The planes were dispersed round hundreds of hidden air bases, and their positions were constantly moved for months before the war to prevent any foreign observers learning their exact whereabouts.

The Germans bombed and destroyed many hundreds of Soviet “planes” in the first week of the war, but most of these were dummies made of plywood and treated cardboard, and the airfield buildings that were hit were mostly faked, standing only a few feet from the ground and made of wood. The real airfields were hidden and camouflaged. Reasons for these elaborate precautions are understandable when it is known that for 15 years the Red Aii Force has been built up with the one idea of resisting a surprise attack. NETWORK OF AIRCRAFT FACTORIES. The strength which faced the Germans at first was the advanced operational units of the Red, air fleets in Western Russia. Each of these fleets is completely self-sufficient in operational facilities and maintenance, and each is directly fed by a series of aircraft factories and maintenance centres built to supply one air fleet. Behind these air forces, each of which compares with a single Power’s total air strength, are units of almost equal strength kept in reserve east of Moscow, state authoritative reports. All this air might is independent of the Soviet Air Force in the Far East watching the Japanese. There is a tremendous network of aircraft factories to keep these planes in the field. Women are admitted to the Red Aii Force, as volunteers, and they are headed by Mme. Valentina Grisodubova and Mme. Marina Raskova, the Soviet navigator pilots who held many world long-distance records before the war.

They alone offer a great potential air crew strength for the Red Air Force, but I understand that the women have so far been employed only as ground staff because the supply of Russian airmen has not yet been heavily sapped.

Russia’s Air Force has been trained to act as a component of the army in land operations. The army commanders then take control, and the air force commander is attached to the military headquarters. The other phase of the Red Air Force works on independent air operations for bombing and parachute landings deep in the enemy’s territory for large-scale i sabotage. This independent force has devastated the Ploesti oilfields in Rumania. The army components have had most success against the German tanks. These planes are fitted with anti-tank guns which rip off the tops of the panzer vehicles. TWO NEW SECRET PLANES. Most of the Russian air successes have been achieved with two new secret planes which did not appear until Hitler invaded the Soviet. They are the 118, a single-seat low-wing monoplane fighter with a 1100 h.p. engine. Designed by Polikarpofl, Russia’s Mitchell and Sydney Camm combined, its top speed is not far short of 400 miles an ! hour, and it has eight ma-chine-guns in the wings. Polikarpoff studied the published information on both the Spitfire and the Messerschmitt 109 in producing the 118, and it is similar in appearance to the R.A.F.’s crack -fighter. Russia’s new bomber is the TB-6, four-motor mid-wing monoplane. Ils top speed from nearly 5,000 h.p. is stated to be 274 miles an hour. It has a range of 1,300 miles, carrying two tons of bombs.—-“ Express” Air Reporter.