Fearing the Worst by Samuel F. Wells Jr

Author:Samuel F. Wells Jr.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HIS027020, History/Military/Korean War, HIS036060, History/United States/20th Century
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2019-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

IN PRISON AND DURING THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

During his time in the prison design bureau, or sharaga, Tupolev’s main assignment was to build a high-performance, twin-engine dive bomber superior to the German Junkers Ju-88. This aircraft began as Project 103, and would eventually be designated the Tu-2. With the concept for the airplane completed, Tupolev had to spend several months fending off Beria’s misguided attempt to shift the project in a completely infeasible direction. Only then could the fabrication of parts and construction begin. Despite the frustrations and delays of building an airplane under the scrutiny of guards who saw every change from the blueprints as attempted sabotage, Tupolev’s team members and their shop workers had the first airplane ready for flight testing in the fall of 1940. The flight tests went well, but the military insisted on several changes that added weight and required significant redesign. With signs that war with Germany might break out soon, Tupolev pressed his colleagues to work harder than normal on the changes. The new version was completed in the spring of 1941, and on its initial flight an engine caught fire. The investigation that followed produced demands for a change to heavier, air-cooled engines, which required another redesign.17 Before the second revised design was finished, the Germans attacked on June 22, 1941.

Events changed quickly for the design bureau. Tupolev was freed from prison in July, and in August the entire team and its equipment, including the partially assembled airplane, were evacuated to Omsk—some 900 miles east of Moscow and just north of the border with Kazakhstan. At the new site, the team members assembled their equipment in a partially built factory and had to build a new plant for production of the aircraft. Gradually, groups of prisoners were freed by seniority and could join their families, who had also been evacuated to Omsk. Working long hours, the team completed the prototype, tested it successfully, and put it into mass production in September 1941. The Tu-2 entered combat in March 1942 and became one of the mainstays of the Red Army’s drive across Eastern Europe to Berlin. With modifications from combat experience, over 2,200 Tu-2s were built until it went out of production in 1948.

After Soviet forces had stopped the German assault at Stalingrad and taken the offensive, Tupolev’s bureau moved back to Moscow in the summer of 1943 and worked on a range of projects that focused on improving the production of weapons for combat. Overall, during the war Tupolev and his colleagues completed ten types of aircraft and torpedo boats, including the highly effective Tu-2. The military historian Steven Zaloga contends that the Tu-2 “was far superior to any twin-engine bomber in Soviet or German service. The design was so good that in 1943 Tupolev was awarded the Stalin Prize and a cash bonus of $25,000. Stalin reportedly apologized to Tupolev for his rough treatment in prison,” and personally assigned the designation Tu-2 to the airplane.18

In September 1943, aviation industry officials directed

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