No GNW (or “Peter goes South”)
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In a search for wunderwaffe #1
450. In a search for wunderwaffe #1
On the land
The military establishment still was in a seemingly endless search for an ideal tank. With the reasonably good guns, armor and engines being available, now it was a time to address another aspect, tank’s ability to move fast and over the long distances. So far, the domestic and world-wide results were not extremely encouraging. The French, for example, used rubber Kegress tracks, and the Germans struggled with complex transmissions and tracks with rubber shoes on bearings. With the first tanks having range of 150 - 200 km and pedestrian’s speed, it is small wonder that one of the popular and lasting approaches to their design was making the small tanks which could be placed in the back of the truck. But what about the bigger ones? The tracked propulsion was necessary only in difficult conditions, and on good roads it was possible to move on wheels. Naturally, there was an idea to combine wheel and track. Engineers offered several options with descending wheels or tracks, but the best solution was invented by American Walter Christie. Before engaging in military equipment, Christie built unique front-wheel drive racing cars and took part in the races himself. And later he decided to create the fastest tank. Which he did (you can watch it on youtube)
The idea was that with a relative ease the tank could switch between the tracks and wheels. Christie proposed a chassis with very large diameter support rollers. If necessary, the tracks were removed and the tank turned into a wheeled armored car. Large rollers have lower rolling resistance, and their rubber bandages lasted longer. There were also some other innovations, which you can easily find if interested [2]. The important thing is that design was simple and technically reasonable. In 1931 couple of the improved Christie’s chassis had been bought by Russia and triggered the local epidemics of the wheel-tracks tank designs from a tiny tankette to a big three-turrets tanks.
To a great degree, this enthusiasm was due to a simple fact: the generals in charge of the Tank Directorate (not being overburdened with the technical knowledge or understanding of practicalities) saw Christie’s presentation and decided that this is a right way to go. Anyway, Russia ended up being the only country spending considerable time and resources in this direction. Even Christie abandoned it soon enough. All because the possibility of driving on wheels, initially very attractive, began to bring more problems than benefits.
The main problem was that what’s good for something weighting under 10 tons will not necessarily work for something weighting over 20 tons. As a result, for a tank with tracks range of 2,000 km the wheels range was 50 - 100 km because the rubber coverage of the wheels will get destroyed. Early tracks were characterized by low resource, so wheel travel was required to cover a significant distance at high speed. Now everything rested on the survivability of rubber bands, so to go far and quickly it was already necessary to go a crawler. Fortunately, the new wear-resistant brands of steel have significantly increased the resource of the tracks. Being pushed by their superiors, the engineers kept modifying construction achieving up to 700 kms for the wheels but the tracks still could do 2,000 - 3,000 km. Not to mention that the modified systems were getting more complicated with all related problems. Did this deter the Tank Directorate leadership from pursuing their pipe dream? Not really. They kept sending their superiors reports of the new failures and problems but kept stubbornly stay on a chosen course.
Fortunately, “the track opposition” did exist and was influential enough to support designs of the normal tanks. What’s even more important, they were allowed to express their opinions on the high-level conferences including those in the emperor’s presence. One of these conferences, called to discuss parameters of a new wheel-track tank, turned into a dispute about the whole idea. The opponents of the wheeled-tracked propulsion were in the minority but this was not important because The Only Person Who Mattered suddenly supported them and Kharkov Locomotive Plant [3] got an order to use its engineering bureau to design a fully tracked tank similar in other parameters to the wheel-track tank the bureau was designing. The final decision about direction to go would be taken after the the produced models are thoroughly tested.
When the test models were ready the track-only version (A32) had armor 30mm instead of 25mm and a gun of 76mm instead of 45. Other than that the test results were pretty much the same. When presented, among other models, to the Army leadership, the A-32 "acted" very effectively. Easily, even elegantly and at a good pace, the tank overcame the moat, escarp, counter-escarp, track bridge, forded the river, climbed the slope with an ascent of more than 30° and finally knocked down a large pine with the nose of the armored hull, causing the admiration of the audience. Based on the results of the tests and demonstration, the opinion was expressed that the A-32 tank, which had a margin to increase weight, was advisable to protect with more powerful 45-mm armor, respectively, increasing the strength of individual parts.
This strengthened model (A-34) was recommended into production but this was just the end of the beginning. Technology of making the turrets was quite complicated and there were some other issues. Then it came to the army testing:
List of the problems and needed changes was depressingly long and required a lot of work before it could come to a mass production. Nonetheless, the chief constructor decided not to wait and show what is available. To accomplish the required 2,000 km run he decided to drive two ready tanks with accompanying two tractors from Kharkov to Moscow (where the emperor was at that time). They drove all the way to Kremlin and, in the presence of the emperor and army top brass, made an impressive performance. After the report and inspection, the tanks left: one to Spassky, the other to the Trinity Gate. Not reaching the gate, they turned around abruptly and drove towards each other, cutting out sparks from the paving stones. After making several laps with turns in different directions, the tanks on command stopped in the same place. The emperor liked what he saw and ordered to provide Kharkov Plant with all resources necessary to fix the problems about which the chief of the Tank Directorate and his deputy keep, rather annoyingly, talking. The chief of the Directorate was carried away so much that he dared to say “we’ll pay dearly for production of the not battle worthy vehicles.” Which was stupid both factually and career wise. After additional testing, this time the tanks were shot at from 45mm gun, the column drove back making the trip 3,000 km long. There was an additional testing with the negative comments regarding convenience, noise, etc., which provided Tank Directorate with an excuse for putting production on hold, but leadership of the plant supported by the head of the Scientific-Technical Committee of the Main Agency of Automobiles and Tanks of the Ministry
of War, appealed directly to the Armaments Deputy of the Minister of War who ordered to start production. There were numerous technological adjustment problems followed by one more attempt of the Chief of the Tank Directorate, supported by commander of the Belorussian Military District, to stop production: both of them hold an opinion that the stress has to be made on the light tank’s production.
Regardless (in)sincerity of that opinion, both of them belonged to the “cavalry clique” formed by the late (died in 929) Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich and routinely opposed to the “technocrats” supported and promoted by the former Regent [4]. With a coming retirement of the Minister of War, general D. Shuvaev, discrediting his powerful deputy could provide great opportunities. Of course, this was a long shot but they had been betting upon an assumption that Grand Duke Alexander may not care too much for the tanks, being dedicated to his beloved aviation, and that the Emperor Alexey does not really care one way or another. Both assumptions proved to be wrong and the Grand Duke, whom the emperor deeply respected, could be a real a—hole when somebody pissed him off [5] so he made some recommendations.
General Tukhachevsky got an appointment together with a cart blanch for selecting the new positions for these people. Something commensurable with their clearly demonstrated bad judgement and mental deficiencies. While congratulating the new minister, the Emperor briefly mentioned that he does not want to see in the decision-making positions people with a proven bad judgement and neither does he want to see them in any of two capitals or any other place where said poor judgement can be detrimental to the interests of the Russian Empire.
The work on production technology and construction improvements kept going on with more metallurgical plants being involved. One of the most important innovations introduced on Mariupol Metallurgical Plant was to start casting the turrets with an armor 52 mm thick: prior to this their construction required a complicated welding process.
By 1933 a total production was over 1,000 tanks per month.
____________
[1] “Chassis” was mentioned not in a technical context but the principle is solid.
[2] Actually, if you are interested, you already know them and if you are not (welcome to the club), why bother with this mumbo-jumbo?
[3] It was also making the locomotives and some other stuff (see epigraph about Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant).
[4] In OTL he died in 1933 (age 66) but I’m keeping him alive and active.
[5] Inspired by an old joke that ends up with “when you are drunk, you can be a real a—hole, … Superman!” 😉
“Fix the chassis…How do you do?.” [1]
‘Chorus line’
“Chelyabinsk. The bus driver announces: - "Tractor Plant" stop. Who asked the tank factory, get out here.”
“The minus of a tank is exactly one: you can't see where you're going, but it doesn't really interfere when you go on the tank.”
“In Russia, a good car should be comfortable, fast and a tank.”
“Two goldfish are in a tank Then one of them turns to the other and asks, Do you know how to drive this thing?”
“From the report of the flight school cadet: "The plane went out of the runway, broke through the fence, crashed into a tree, and then lost control."”
Unknown authors
“ I will ignore all ideas for new works and engines of war, the invention of which has reached its limits and for whose improvement I see no further hope.”
Julius Frontinus, chief military engineer to the Emperor Vespasian, c. CE 70.
“It is impossible to deal with state affairs in close proximity to the people. I'd like to put them somewhere far away, these people.”
“Well, that's not a bad solution. Prepare a draft, I'll bring it to the perfection.”
А. Chizh, ‘Death wears purple’
Russia, early 1930s‘Chorus line’
“Chelyabinsk. The bus driver announces: - "Tractor Plant" stop. Who asked the tank factory, get out here.”
“The minus of a tank is exactly one: you can't see where you're going, but it doesn't really interfere when you go on the tank.”
“In Russia, a good car should be comfortable, fast and a tank.”
“Two goldfish are in a tank Then one of them turns to the other and asks, Do you know how to drive this thing?”
“From the report of the flight school cadet: "The plane went out of the runway, broke through the fence, crashed into a tree, and then lost control."”
Unknown authors
“ I will ignore all ideas for new works and engines of war, the invention of which has reached its limits and for whose improvement I see no further hope.”
Julius Frontinus, chief military engineer to the Emperor Vespasian, c. CE 70.
“It is impossible to deal with state affairs in close proximity to the people. I'd like to put them somewhere far away, these people.”
“Well, that's not a bad solution. Prepare a draft, I'll bring it to the perfection.”
А. Chizh, ‘Death wears purple’
On the land
The military establishment still was in a seemingly endless search for an ideal tank. With the reasonably good guns, armor and engines being available, now it was a time to address another aspect, tank’s ability to move fast and over the long distances. So far, the domestic and world-wide results were not extremely encouraging. The French, for example, used rubber Kegress tracks, and the Germans struggled with complex transmissions and tracks with rubber shoes on bearings. With the first tanks having range of 150 - 200 km and pedestrian’s speed, it is small wonder that one of the popular and lasting approaches to their design was making the small tanks which could be placed in the back of the truck. But what about the bigger ones? The tracked propulsion was necessary only in difficult conditions, and on good roads it was possible to move on wheels. Naturally, there was an idea to combine wheel and track. Engineers offered several options with descending wheels or tracks, but the best solution was invented by American Walter Christie. Before engaging in military equipment, Christie built unique front-wheel drive racing cars and took part in the races himself. And later he decided to create the fastest tank. Which he did (you can watch it on youtube)
The idea was that with a relative ease the tank could switch between the tracks and wheels. Christie proposed a chassis with very large diameter support rollers. If necessary, the tracks were removed and the tank turned into a wheeled armored car. Large rollers have lower rolling resistance, and their rubber bandages lasted longer. There were also some other innovations, which you can easily find if interested [2]. The important thing is that design was simple and technically reasonable. In 1931 couple of the improved Christie’s chassis had been bought by Russia and triggered the local epidemics of the wheel-tracks tank designs from a tiny tankette to a big three-turrets tanks.
To a great degree, this enthusiasm was due to a simple fact: the generals in charge of the Tank Directorate (not being overburdened with the technical knowledge or understanding of practicalities) saw Christie’s presentation and decided that this is a right way to go. Anyway, Russia ended up being the only country spending considerable time and resources in this direction. Even Christie abandoned it soon enough. All because the possibility of driving on wheels, initially very attractive, began to bring more problems than benefits.
The main problem was that what’s good for something weighting under 10 tons will not necessarily work for something weighting over 20 tons. As a result, for a tank with tracks range of 2,000 km the wheels range was 50 - 100 km because the rubber coverage of the wheels will get destroyed. Early tracks were characterized by low resource, so wheel travel was required to cover a significant distance at high speed. Now everything rested on the survivability of rubber bands, so to go far and quickly it was already necessary to go a crawler. Fortunately, the new wear-resistant brands of steel have significantly increased the resource of the tracks. Being pushed by their superiors, the engineers kept modifying construction achieving up to 700 kms for the wheels but the tracks still could do 2,000 - 3,000 km. Not to mention that the modified systems were getting more complicated with all related problems. Did this deter the Tank Directorate leadership from pursuing their pipe dream? Not really. They kept sending their superiors reports of the new failures and problems but kept stubbornly stay on a chosen course.
Fortunately, “the track opposition” did exist and was influential enough to support designs of the normal tanks. What’s even more important, they were allowed to express their opinions on the high-level conferences including those in the emperor’s presence. One of these conferences, called to discuss parameters of a new wheel-track tank, turned into a dispute about the whole idea. The opponents of the wheeled-tracked propulsion were in the minority but this was not important because The Only Person Who Mattered suddenly supported them and Kharkov Locomotive Plant [3] got an order to use its engineering bureau to design a fully tracked tank similar in other parameters to the wheel-track tank the bureau was designing. The final decision about direction to go would be taken after the the produced models are thoroughly tested.
When the test models were ready the track-only version (A32) had armor 30mm instead of 25mm and a gun of 76mm instead of 45. Other than that the test results were pretty much the same. When presented, among other models, to the Army leadership, the A-32 "acted" very effectively. Easily, even elegantly and at a good pace, the tank overcame the moat, escarp, counter-escarp, track bridge, forded the river, climbed the slope with an ascent of more than 30° and finally knocked down a large pine with the nose of the armored hull, causing the admiration of the audience. Based on the results of the tests and demonstration, the opinion was expressed that the A-32 tank, which had a margin to increase weight, was advisable to protect with more powerful 45-mm armor, respectively, increasing the strength of individual parts.
This strengthened model (A-34) was recommended into production but this was just the end of the beginning. Technology of making the turrets was quite complicated and there were some other issues. Then it came to the army testing:
“The first [tank] A-34 passed 200 km of tests. The cross-country ability is good. The accompanying BT often gets stuck, and you have to pull it out with 34th. The visibility in the movement is disgusting. The glasses are getting foggy and get clogged with snow in 7-10 minutes. Further movement is impossible, it is necessary to clean the glasses from the outside. The turret with this system is tight … The mechanisms work fine.”
List of the problems and needed changes was depressingly long and required a lot of work before it could come to a mass production. Nonetheless, the chief constructor decided not to wait and show what is available. To accomplish the required 2,000 km run he decided to drive two ready tanks with accompanying two tractors from Kharkov to Moscow (where the emperor was at that time). They drove all the way to Kremlin and, in the presence of the emperor and army top brass, made an impressive performance. After the report and inspection, the tanks left: one to Spassky, the other to the Trinity Gate. Not reaching the gate, they turned around abruptly and drove towards each other, cutting out sparks from the paving stones. After making several laps with turns in different directions, the tanks on command stopped in the same place. The emperor liked what he saw and ordered to provide Kharkov Plant with all resources necessary to fix the problems about which the chief of the Tank Directorate and his deputy keep, rather annoyingly, talking. The chief of the Directorate was carried away so much that he dared to say “we’ll pay dearly for production of the not battle worthy vehicles.” Which was stupid both factually and career wise. After additional testing, this time the tanks were shot at from 45mm gun, the column drove back making the trip 3,000 km long. There was an additional testing with the negative comments regarding convenience, noise, etc., which provided Tank Directorate with an excuse for putting production on hold, but leadership of the plant supported by the head of the Scientific-Technical Committee of the Main Agency of Automobiles and Tanks of the Ministry
of War, appealed directly to the Armaments Deputy of the Minister of War who ordered to start production. There were numerous technological adjustment problems followed by one more attempt of the Chief of the Tank Directorate, supported by commander of the Belorussian Military District, to stop production: both of them hold an opinion that the stress has to be made on the light tank’s production.
Regardless (in)sincerity of that opinion, both of them belonged to the “cavalry clique” formed by the late (died in 929) Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich and routinely opposed to the “technocrats” supported and promoted by the former Regent [4]. With a coming retirement of the Minister of War, general D. Shuvaev, discrediting his powerful deputy could provide great opportunities. Of course, this was a long shot but they had been betting upon an assumption that Grand Duke Alexander may not care too much for the tanks, being dedicated to his beloved aviation, and that the Emperor Alexey does not really care one way or another. Both assumptions proved to be wrong and the Grand Duke, whom the emperor deeply respected, could be a real a—hole when somebody pissed him off [5] so he made some recommendations.
General Tukhachevsky got an appointment together with a cart blanch for selecting the new positions for these people. Something commensurable with their clearly demonstrated bad judgement and mental deficiencies. While congratulating the new minister, the Emperor briefly mentioned that he does not want to see in the decision-making positions people with a proven bad judgement and neither does he want to see them in any of two capitals or any other place where said poor judgement can be detrimental to the interests of the Russian Empire.
The work on production technology and construction improvements kept going on with more metallurgical plants being involved. One of the most important innovations introduced on Mariupol Metallurgical Plant was to start casting the turrets with an armor 52 mm thick: prior to this their construction required a complicated welding process.
By 1933 a total production was over 1,000 tanks per month.
____________
[1] “Chassis” was mentioned not in a technical context but the principle is solid.
[2] Actually, if you are interested, you already know them and if you are not (welcome to the club), why bother with this mumbo-jumbo?
[3] It was also making the locomotives and some other stuff (see epigraph about Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant).
[4] In OTL he died in 1933 (age 66) but I’m keeping him alive and active.
[5] Inspired by an old joke that ends up with “when you are drunk, you can be a real a—hole, … Superman!” 😉
The tanks! Not even I am that cruel
Unlike the tanks I do believe you should be protected!
And also unlike them I expect us Alexs to stay stuck together
a tank chapter I can understand what a miracle.
Also do we have an up to date map of the world
Also do we have an up to date map of the world
Don't get me wrong T-34 was a war winning weapon, but not a good one. T-34M, which I presume is the actual model you are fielding here since there is no Barbarossa to disrupt it cant hold a candle to T-44, let alone T-54/55. It's not a wank to think without war they won't stop their planned improvements.
Well, with all its problems it was quite good and we are still in 1932-34 with no immediate war on a horizon and none of the two potential opponents having anything close to it so there is plenty of time and resources for the later modifications: unlike you, the contemporaries did not have benefit of a hindsight.😜 The point of the chapter was to put developments on a right track, not to jump over intermediate stages to a final result.
Besides, in OTL testing of the T34 prototype had been done in parallel with Panzer III brought from Germany, revealing some of the problems, which almost doomed T34 program. ITTL there is nothing to compare with and improvements can come only with the experience. T34M was designed couple years after the original model. T44 had 85mm gun which was not even designed until 1943 as a response to the German developments and would be a gross overkill against what Japanese had in the terms of an armor, etc.
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During WWII the number was somewhat greater so in a peace time and with the similar industrial capacities it is doable without excessive stress of the resources.
451. In a search for wunderwaffe #2
451. In a search for wunderwaffe #2
A person who tried to kill the battleships.
In 1921 colonel William Lendrum Mitchell of the US Army finally convinced the Navy's and Army’s Secretaries to test his theories of destruction of ships by aerial bombing. They agreed to a series of joint Army-Navy exercises, known as Project B, to be held that summer in which surplus ships could be used as targets. The Navy reluctantly agreed to the demonstration after news leaked of its own tests. To counter Mitchell, the Navy had sunk the old battleship Indiana near Tangier Island, Virginia, on November 1, 1920, using its own airplanes. Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, had hoped to squelch Mitchell by releasing a report on the results. The Navy report stated “The entire experiment pointed to the improbability of a modern battleship being either destroyed or completely put out of action by aerial bombs”. (Un)fortunately for the Navy the news leaked that the Navy's "tests" were done with dummy sand bombs and that the ship was actually sunk using high explosives placed on the ship, Congress introduced two resolutions urging new tests and backed the Navy into a corner.
However the top brass did not like an idea and the Chief of the Air Corps attempted, unsuccessfully, to have Mitchell dismissed a week before the tests began, reacting to Navy complaints about Mitchell's criticisms. The Navy set rules and conditions that enhanced the survivability of the targets, stating that the purpose of the tests was to determine how much damage ships could withstand. The planes were forbidden from using aerial torpedoes, would be permitted only two hits on the battleship using their heaviest bombs, and would have to stop between hits so that a damage assessment party could go aboard. Smaller ships could not be struck by bombs larger than 600 pounds, and also were subject to the same interruptions in attacks. The chosen testing site was chosen to minimize the effective time the Army's bombers would have in the target area. [2]
The Navy, Marine Corps, and Army aircraft had been dropping 230, 550, and 600 lb (100, 250, and 270 kg) bombs on an old battleship with the Navy doing its best to prevent this bombing from being effective and stopping the test before all their bombs had been dropped. There were few direct hits of a minor significance but at least three of the bombs landed close enough to rip hull plates as well as cause the ship to roll over.
Mitchell repeated the performance twice in tests conducted with like results on the U.S. pre-dreadnought battleship Alabama in September 1921, and the battleships Virginia and New Jersey in September 1923. The efficacy of the tests remains in debate but the budgets had been redrawn for further air development presumably forcing the Navy to look more closely at the possibilities of naval air power. It did in its usual way by putting orders for more …. battleships and blocking an idea to establish a "General Headquarters Air Force" as a vehicle for modernization and expansion of the Air Service, to be funded through shared appropriations for aviation with the Navy. Mitchell was demoted from his temporary rank of a brigadier to a permanent rank of a colonel. Few years later he was court-martialed for criticizing his superiors, found “guilty of all specifications and of the charge" and suspended him from active duty for five years without pay.
On the other side of an ocean (or two oceans?) information about Mitchell’s tests got a completely different reception because “father of the Russian naval aviation” who also was Inspector General of the Russian Aviation (both land and naval), full Admiral of the Russian Navy [3] and the Regent of Russian Empire, saw in them not just confirmation of his own ideas but also a potential solution of a major strategic strategic problem which the Russian Empire may, sooner or later, face on the Far East in the case of a war with Japan or any other major naval power which may attack Russian possessions on a Pacific coast.
Even with the fast industrialization of the Russian Far East, it was obvious that maintenance of a major conventional fleet there is extremely problematic even if just because of a little number of the suitable ports: most of them had been too far to the North in the areas communication with which was limited by the climate and chances to develop the major manufacturing facilities in which were close to zero. OTOH, in the case of a major naval conflict Russia would have to defend a “perimeter” stretching from Vladivostok to Alaska and, preferably, be able not to limit itself to a passive defense. To a great degree the same applied to the land defenses: a border, including Mongolia was extremely long, terrain difficult and a powerful aviation would be one of the main tools for fighting a numerically stronger opponent.
As Mitchell put it, for the cost of one battleship you can build a thousand planes and, as was already demonstrated, Russia could build the modest sized aircraft carriers capable of carrying 25 - 30 planes for 4 - 5,000,000 rubles and those carrying over 80 (and having a much greater speed) for approximately 20 - 30,000,000 while already obsolete dreadnought of the “Empress Maria” class cost 27 - 30,000,000 and a new battleship of “Vladivostok” class over 100,000,000. There was no need for many big carriers but the numerous small-sized ones could provide a reliable defense of the Kuril - Aleutian perimeter while combination of the land- and carrier-based naval aviation could made navigation in the Sea of Japan quite difficult. Under certain, not too fantastic, circumstances the Hokkaido and even Honsu island can come under aerial attacks.
But the main advantage was a relatively simple maintenance during the war. With the Pacific Theater being far away from the main weapons-producing plants there would be a need to upgrade metallurgical plant in Khabarovsk to a degree allowing to produce 16” naval guns, high quality armor plates of up to 500 mm and to have in Vladivostok and/or Nikolayevsk-on-Amur dock capable of housing ship of almost 60,000 tons (better, more than one), etc. with the total expenses easily going up to the amount comparable to a cost of one of these ships. An alternative of transporting the “big stuff” across most of the Russian Empire would be cheaper but extremely cumbersome and there still would be a need in the big docks and many other things. OTOH, even a big air-carrier was only around 30,000 tons with the docks of that size available and no need in production, transportation and installation of the huge pieces of equipment. Transporting planes was not a major problem and neither was their repair and to add to the existing aviation schools couple more on the Far East was easy.
The main issues would be:
There were already rather encouraging moves in the area of the long range heavy bombers: the test flight of a prototype Pe-8 demonstrated the range of 3,700 km with a maximum speed of 443 km/h, ceiling 9,300 m and bomb load of 5,000 kg.
The great bonus in that area was a high degree of cooperation with the German aviation designers and manufacturers. The militaristic enthusiasm of Wilhelm II was steadily dwindling after the Barmalei War and, after the two major economic crisises, and in an absence of the credible enemies, the country under the new emperor was steadily emphasizing development of a “peaceful economy”. Of course, a recently acquired colonial empire required strong navy and high quality troops to its maintenance but it did not need a huge army because a major land war with the existing system of the alliances and “affiliations” was extremely unlikely. As far as aviation was involved, its military usefulness was beyond the doubt but the existing geopolitical framework put the practical limits on its numbers with the main emphasis being upon the commercial aviation. As a result, the military segment of the aviation industry had considerable intellectual resources available for the foreign contracts and that type of relations existed between the German and Russian empires for many decades. Among others, company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was working on design of a heavy bomber that would have a range of up to 6,000 km and bomb load up to 7,000 kg. If these heavy bombers projects proved to be successful in a big numbers production, then a big part of Japan would be reachable not only from Vladivostok but from Khabarovsk as well.
But, of course, Mitchell’s “thousand planes” would have to include a wide variety of plane types and most of them were going to be the fighters and light bombers.
“On the other side of equation”:
However, geography of the needed materials was much more extensive, including South-East Asia (oil and raw materials in the British, French and Dutch colonies), the US (mostly scrap metal), Mexico (oil in Southern California), RE (oil in Northern Sakhalin and other materials). Quite a few targets but the US had the greatest presence on the Pacific and, as such was considered a potential enemy #1.
Two schools of thought battled over whether the navy should be organized around powerful battleships, ultimately able to defeat American ones in Japanese waters, or aircraft carriers. Neither really prevailed, and both types were developed. An attempt to build as many ships as possible as soon as possible led to the not too obvious but quite serious problems with their design and training of their crews.
As far as the aviation training was involved, an inherently faulty system was adopted: the most experienced pilots were expected to fly first and for as long as they are alive. In the case of war this would produce initial high scores but, with the shrinking numbers of the high quality fliers being engaged in fighting, there was going to be a shortage of experienced people capable of teaching the new pilots. The systems based upon rotation from the field to training or fast promotion of experienced fliers to the commanding positions may not produce the individual high scores but were going to be more productive in a long run in the terms of victories and losses numbers.
However, the serious conflict was not there, yet, and each country had the best system in the world. 😉
_________
[1] We are strong, we are brave,/Our torpedoes are rusty,/Don't touch us and you'll live longer!
[2] Actually, this worst case scenario was exactly how the testing has to be done. What sense does it make to rest something under the best case scenario? 😉
[3] It would be unsuitable for a regent to be inferior to anybody in a military rank.
“Thank God, men cannot as yet fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.”
Henry David Thoreau, Winter Journal, 3 January 1861
“I hope none of you gentlemen is so foolish as to think that aeroplanes will be usefully employed for reconnaissance from the air. There is only one way for a commander to get information by reconnaissance, and that is by the use of cavalry.”
General Sir Douglas Haig, British Army, addressing the British Army Staff College, Summer 1914
“Another popular fallacy is to suppose that flying machines could be used to drop dynamite on an enemy in time of war.”
William H. Pickering, Harvard astronomer, Aeronautics, 1908.
“To affirm that the aeroplane is going to revolutionize naval warfare of the future is to be guilty of the wildest exaggeration.”
Scientific American magazine, 16 July 1910.
“Aviation is fine as a sport. But as an instrument of war, it is worthless.”
General Ferdinand Foch, 1911.
“There are a lot of knowledgeable people, but few specialists.”
A.S.Yakovlev
“It's interesting to fly sober, but it's a little unusual!”
Unknown military pilot
“The fleet affects politics by the very fact of its existence.”
A.Mahan
“What is naval laughter? That's when you were missed.”
A. Pokrovsky
“Мы сильные, мы бравые,
У нас торпеды ржавые,
Не трогай нас, и дольше проживёшь!” [1]
S.Trophimov, ‘Submarine’
“- I'm a battleship. Change the course for 20 degrees!
- You change the course. I'm a lighthouse"
naval exchange of the signals
In the air and on the sea.Henry David Thoreau, Winter Journal, 3 January 1861
“I hope none of you gentlemen is so foolish as to think that aeroplanes will be usefully employed for reconnaissance from the air. There is only one way for a commander to get information by reconnaissance, and that is by the use of cavalry.”
General Sir Douglas Haig, British Army, addressing the British Army Staff College, Summer 1914
“Another popular fallacy is to suppose that flying machines could be used to drop dynamite on an enemy in time of war.”
William H. Pickering, Harvard astronomer, Aeronautics, 1908.
“To affirm that the aeroplane is going to revolutionize naval warfare of the future is to be guilty of the wildest exaggeration.”
Scientific American magazine, 16 July 1910.
“Aviation is fine as a sport. But as an instrument of war, it is worthless.”
General Ferdinand Foch, 1911.
“There are a lot of knowledgeable people, but few specialists.”
A.S.Yakovlev
“It's interesting to fly sober, but it's a little unusual!”
Unknown military pilot
“The fleet affects politics by the very fact of its existence.”
A.Mahan
“What is naval laughter? That's when you were missed.”
A. Pokrovsky
“Мы сильные, мы бравые,
У нас торпеды ржавые,
Не трогай нас, и дольше проживёшь!” [1]
S.Trophimov, ‘Submarine’
“- I'm a battleship. Change the course for 20 degrees!
- You change the course. I'm a lighthouse"
naval exchange of the signals
A person who tried to kill the battleships.
In 1921 colonel William Lendrum Mitchell of the US Army finally convinced the Navy's and Army’s Secretaries to test his theories of destruction of ships by aerial bombing. They agreed to a series of joint Army-Navy exercises, known as Project B, to be held that summer in which surplus ships could be used as targets. The Navy reluctantly agreed to the demonstration after news leaked of its own tests. To counter Mitchell, the Navy had sunk the old battleship Indiana near Tangier Island, Virginia, on November 1, 1920, using its own airplanes. Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, had hoped to squelch Mitchell by releasing a report on the results. The Navy report stated “The entire experiment pointed to the improbability of a modern battleship being either destroyed or completely put out of action by aerial bombs”. (Un)fortunately for the Navy the news leaked that the Navy's "tests" were done with dummy sand bombs and that the ship was actually sunk using high explosives placed on the ship, Congress introduced two resolutions urging new tests and backed the Navy into a corner.
However the top brass did not like an idea and the Chief of the Air Corps attempted, unsuccessfully, to have Mitchell dismissed a week before the tests began, reacting to Navy complaints about Mitchell's criticisms. The Navy set rules and conditions that enhanced the survivability of the targets, stating that the purpose of the tests was to determine how much damage ships could withstand. The planes were forbidden from using aerial torpedoes, would be permitted only two hits on the battleship using their heaviest bombs, and would have to stop between hits so that a damage assessment party could go aboard. Smaller ships could not be struck by bombs larger than 600 pounds, and also were subject to the same interruptions in attacks. The chosen testing site was chosen to minimize the effective time the Army's bombers would have in the target area. [2]
The Navy, Marine Corps, and Army aircraft had been dropping 230, 550, and 600 lb (100, 250, and 270 kg) bombs on an old battleship with the Navy doing its best to prevent this bombing from being effective and stopping the test before all their bombs had been dropped. There were few direct hits of a minor significance but at least three of the bombs landed close enough to rip hull plates as well as cause the ship to roll over.
Mitchell repeated the performance twice in tests conducted with like results on the U.S. pre-dreadnought battleship Alabama in September 1921, and the battleships Virginia and New Jersey in September 1923. The efficacy of the tests remains in debate but the budgets had been redrawn for further air development presumably forcing the Navy to look more closely at the possibilities of naval air power. It did in its usual way by putting orders for more …. battleships and blocking an idea to establish a "General Headquarters Air Force" as a vehicle for modernization and expansion of the Air Service, to be funded through shared appropriations for aviation with the Navy. Mitchell was demoted from his temporary rank of a brigadier to a permanent rank of a colonel. Few years later he was court-martialed for criticizing his superiors, found “guilty of all specifications and of the charge" and suspended him from active duty for five years without pay.
On the other side of an ocean (or two oceans?) information about Mitchell’s tests got a completely different reception because “father of the Russian naval aviation” who also was Inspector General of the Russian Aviation (both land and naval), full Admiral of the Russian Navy [3] and the Regent of Russian Empire, saw in them not just confirmation of his own ideas but also a potential solution of a major strategic strategic problem which the Russian Empire may, sooner or later, face on the Far East in the case of a war with Japan or any other major naval power which may attack Russian possessions on a Pacific coast.
Even with the fast industrialization of the Russian Far East, it was obvious that maintenance of a major conventional fleet there is extremely problematic even if just because of a little number of the suitable ports: most of them had been too far to the North in the areas communication with which was limited by the climate and chances to develop the major manufacturing facilities in which were close to zero. OTOH, in the case of a major naval conflict Russia would have to defend a “perimeter” stretching from Vladivostok to Alaska and, preferably, be able not to limit itself to a passive defense. To a great degree the same applied to the land defenses: a border, including Mongolia was extremely long, terrain difficult and a powerful aviation would be one of the main tools for fighting a numerically stronger opponent.
As Mitchell put it, for the cost of one battleship you can build a thousand planes and, as was already demonstrated, Russia could build the modest sized aircraft carriers capable of carrying 25 - 30 planes for 4 - 5,000,000 rubles and those carrying over 80 (and having a much greater speed) for approximately 20 - 30,000,000 while already obsolete dreadnought of the “Empress Maria” class cost 27 - 30,000,000 and a new battleship of “Vladivostok” class over 100,000,000. There was no need for many big carriers but the numerous small-sized ones could provide a reliable defense of the Kuril - Aleutian perimeter while combination of the land- and carrier-based naval aviation could made navigation in the Sea of Japan quite difficult. Under certain, not too fantastic, circumstances the Hokkaido and even Honsu island can come under aerial attacks.
But the main advantage was a relatively simple maintenance during the war. With the Pacific Theater being far away from the main weapons-producing plants there would be a need to upgrade metallurgical plant in Khabarovsk to a degree allowing to produce 16” naval guns, high quality armor plates of up to 500 mm and to have in Vladivostok and/or Nikolayevsk-on-Amur dock capable of housing ship of almost 60,000 tons (better, more than one), etc. with the total expenses easily going up to the amount comparable to a cost of one of these ships. An alternative of transporting the “big stuff” across most of the Russian Empire would be cheaper but extremely cumbersome and there still would be a need in the big docks and many other things. OTOH, even a big air-carrier was only around 30,000 tons with the docks of that size available and no need in production, transportation and installation of the huge pieces of equipment. Transporting planes was not a major problem and neither was their repair and to add to the existing aviation schools couple more on the Far East was easy.
The main issues would be:
- Training the flying and deck crews.
- Developing an efficient system of the carriers deployment and escorting (composition and operations of the squadrons combining carriers, cruisers of various types and destroyers) and rigorous training.
- Both for carrier- and land-based naval and army aviation to have enough of the high quality planes of all necessary types.
There were already rather encouraging moves in the area of the long range heavy bombers: the test flight of a prototype Pe-8 demonstrated the range of 3,700 km with a maximum speed of 443 km/h, ceiling 9,300 m and bomb load of 5,000 kg.
The great bonus in that area was a high degree of cooperation with the German aviation designers and manufacturers. The militaristic enthusiasm of Wilhelm II was steadily dwindling after the Barmalei War and, after the two major economic crisises, and in an absence of the credible enemies, the country under the new emperor was steadily emphasizing development of a “peaceful economy”. Of course, a recently acquired colonial empire required strong navy and high quality troops to its maintenance but it did not need a huge army because a major land war with the existing system of the alliances and “affiliations” was extremely unlikely. As far as aviation was involved, its military usefulness was beyond the doubt but the existing geopolitical framework put the practical limits on its numbers with the main emphasis being upon the commercial aviation. As a result, the military segment of the aviation industry had considerable intellectual resources available for the foreign contracts and that type of relations existed between the German and Russian empires for many decades. Among others, company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was working on design of a heavy bomber that would have a range of up to 6,000 km and bomb load up to 7,000 kg. If these heavy bombers projects proved to be successful in a big numbers production, then a big part of Japan would be reachable not only from Vladivostok but from Khabarovsk as well.
But, of course, Mitchell’s “thousand planes” would have to include a wide variety of plane types and most of them were going to be the fighters and light bombers.
“On the other side of equation”:
- In1921 Japan launched Hōshō, its first aircraft carrier and was planning to build more. The interesting part of this was that, in a rather masochistic action, the Brits and Americans sent their consultants to help Japan to get familiar with this area.
- In keeping with its doctrine, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the first to mount 356 mm (14 in) guns (in Kongō), 410 mm (16.1 in) guns (in Nagato), and began the only battleships ever to mount 460 mm (18.1 in) guns (in the Yamato class).
However, geography of the needed materials was much more extensive, including South-East Asia (oil and raw materials in the British, French and Dutch colonies), the US (mostly scrap metal), Mexico (oil in Southern California), RE (oil in Northern Sakhalin and other materials). Quite a few targets but the US had the greatest presence on the Pacific and, as such was considered a potential enemy #1.
Two schools of thought battled over whether the navy should be organized around powerful battleships, ultimately able to defeat American ones in Japanese waters, or aircraft carriers. Neither really prevailed, and both types were developed. An attempt to build as many ships as possible as soon as possible led to the not too obvious but quite serious problems with their design and training of their crews.
As far as the aviation training was involved, an inherently faulty system was adopted: the most experienced pilots were expected to fly first and for as long as they are alive. In the case of war this would produce initial high scores but, with the shrinking numbers of the high quality fliers being engaged in fighting, there was going to be a shortage of experienced people capable of teaching the new pilots. The systems based upon rotation from the field to training or fast promotion of experienced fliers to the commanding positions may not produce the individual high scores but were going to be more productive in a long run in the terms of victories and losses numbers.
However, the serious conflict was not there, yet, and each country had the best system in the world. 😉
_________
[1] We are strong, we are brave,/Our torpedoes are rusty,/Don't touch us and you'll live longer!
[2] Actually, this worst case scenario was exactly how the testing has to be done. What sense does it make to rest something under the best case scenario? 😉
[3] It would be unsuitable for a regent to be inferior to anybody in a military rank.
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Ah the hubris, always so lovely
Well I for one still support flying cavalry
It worked well for the polish
Nothing to say, he was right
Yet now they do
...
Well kind of
Always saw the whole "we can fly because we now have the airplane" as silly as saying "we can now swim because we have boats"
Recent “jewel” in this area: some Russian-speaking journalist writing for isranews translating an article about coronation of a new king of Denmark wrote a sentence, which would sound quite innocent in English “squadron of the Guards hussars”. But instead of “эскадрон” (which is proper for cavalry) she wrote “эскадрилья” (which is used exclusively for aviation). So, thanks to her, we now have the Danish flying hussars. 😂
IMO, all these predictions are nothing comparing to a sweeping prediction made by F.Engels who declared that after invention of the breech-loading rifles and guns no serious further progress in the weaponry is possible. Here you have a serious truly Marxist vision of a situation in general vs. narrow bourgeois nitpicking on the insignificant details.
On the naval issues, he explained that the already existing armored ships have no future: because artillery will always win against protection, everybody is going to start building the fast ships with no armor and few big guns.
😂
Well, you can always try both…. 😉
Blessed
Poland-Denmark when?
I for one agree with him that marxists should only have used breech-loading rifles and guns from then onwards, with no armor
IMO the marxists should only use axes and saws doing some healthy physical exercises in the hospitable forests of Siberia (as an option, using shovels to dig a very useful canal between Bombay and London). And, following to their principles, be fed according to the work done. 😉