1. Introduction
Due to destruction of certain archives and early demise of some of the key personnel it is not by any means certain when, or for what exact reasons Stalin decided to gamble for a military conquest of Western Europe in 1950. Soviet Union was a highly militarized society, so it is not easy to discover what was the exact point of departure from the path which could have followed had Stalin restrained himself.
There are primarily two schools of thought regarding this decision. First one considers that Stalin's aggression was merely a continuation of his efforts which had already subjected Eastern Europe under communist rule and were undermining popularity of Western European elected governments with communist strikes, particularly in Italy and France. The second one thinks that Stalin was ultimately a paranoid whose decision to invade Western Europe was a mere reaction to Truman's decision to built "Super" or Hydrogen bomb in January 1950. While atomic bombs could be ultimately seen as merely more effective bombs, the H-bombs were of different character as city killers potentially destabilizing even the environment itself.
Supporters for the first school of thought point out that Stalin had ordered preparations for the aerial assault on United States and UK already in 1948 while ordering mass production of the first atomic bomb model, RDS-1, copy of American Fat Man, instead of more refined designs proposed by Soviet Scientists. Supporters for the second theory point out that Stalin may have ordered the mass production of primitive RDS-1 and preparation for the aerial assault on USA and UK merely to catch up with American atomic arsenal. Thus, when Truman ordered production of Super, Stalin was dumbfounded as his mounting arsenal of primitive atomic bombs was to be outmatched by new massive US hydrogen bombs.
Nevertheless, the time schedule on invasion was decided on in February 1950, for which there's a crucial piece of evidence. On 30 January 1950 Stalin sent a telegram to Kim Il-Sung in which he stressed that he would be willing to help with reunification of Korea via use of force and specified a timeframe of late July - early August.
2. Preparation
The task to prepare for a long range aerial assault upon United States fell upon 50th Air Army of DA VS (Long Range Aviation of Air Forces) with two regiments of Tu-4 bombers while preparation of aerial assault upon United Kingdom was to be handled by 43rd Air Army headquartered in Vinnitsa. 7yTask of 65th Air Army in Khabarovsk was to attack US occupation forces in Japan.
The target list for 50th Air Army was prepared by STAVKA with help of GRU and consultation of 12th GUMO, or main directorate. The objective of the air assault was to hinder US counterattack capabilities with long timeframe. The focus was thus on atomic delivery and industrial mobilization targets, particularly aviation and oil industry. Oil industry was chosen due to it's suspectibility to fire damage and also because it's repairs would demand a significant amount of steel.
Target list was to be struck with total of 30 weapons. The targets included:
Carswell Air Force Base in Texas; Location of 8th Air Force HQ, 7th and 11th BG's with best US strategic bombers, B-36B's.
Hanford Site, Washington State: Location of plutonium production. To be
struck by three weapons.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Uranium production site. To be struck by two weapons.
Los Alamos Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico: Site of nuclear weapons
research. To be struck by two weapons.
Washington D.C; Political capital.
Boeing factory, Seattle, Washington: Location of aircraft design and
manufacturing
Douglas factory, Long Beach, California: Location of aircraft design and
manufacturing
Convair factory, Fort Worth, Texas: Location of aircraft design and
manufacturing.
P&W factory, East Hartford, Connecticutt: Location of aircraft engine
manufacturing and design
GE factory, Lynn, Massachusetts: Location of aircraft engine design and
manufacturing
North American factory, Inglewood, Los Angeles, California: Location of
aircraft design and manufacturing.
New York City, New York: Financial and industrial center, to be struck by
five weapons
Beaumont, Texas: Oil refinery center
Houston, Texas: Oil refinery center
Lake Charles, Texas: Oil refinery center
Long Beach, California: Oil refinery center
Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Oil refinery center
New Orleans, Louisiana: Oil refinery center
Detroit: Automotive industrial center, to be struck with four weapons
43rd Air Army target list was different, relying on escorted raids instead of single planes due to greater chances of the raids getting discovered. The primary targets were focused on British naval capabilities as well as British political will. As Britain was also within range of conventional attacks the nuclear weapons were used against targets which only nuclear weapons could achieve real effectiveness.
Total number of weapons was twenty, and they were distributed as following:
Plymouth RN base, harbor, civilian shipping, to be struck with two weapons
Clyde RN base, harbor, civilian shipping, to be struck with two weapons
Portsmouth RN base, harbor, civilian shipping, to be struck with two weapons
London, financial and political capital, industrial center,to be struck with
six weapons
Bristol, aviation industry center, to be struck with two weapons
Birmingham, industry center, to be struck with two weapons
Manchester, industry center, to be struck with two weapons
Oxford, reactionary center, to be struck with one weapon
Cambridge, reactionary center, to be struck with one weapon
While 43rd Air Army embarked upon strict, but traditional training regime including long-range navigation and co-operation with escort fighters, the mission of 50th Air Army demanded special training. While aircraft were modified to include as much fuel as possible with removal of defensive armamament the crews had special courses on long range aerial navigation under guidance of V.I.Kokkinaki, the famous Soviet aviator. Each air crew was assigned a GRU trained radio operator fluent in English for maskirovka operations. Finally, operations including staging from faraway strips were trained and it was also revealed to the crews that they would fly under USAF colours. The crews knew from the start that their mission would be a one-way one, and in private conversations between themselves did not have rosy expectations about their treatment by Americans after bombing them with atomic weapons.
Even with 43rd Air Army for some airmen the opening gambit would likely be a one way mission. While drop tanks allowed new MiG-15's almost 2000km's of range, if there was to be any combat the fuel would not be sufficient to get the planes back to their staging bases in Eastern Germany.
For 65th Air Army the mission was to be fairly straightforward; escorted bombing missions against US occupation forces in Japan.
The key for the success of missions of 43rd and 50th Air Armies would be success, which would be achievable as only relatively small amount of personnel involved would know the true aim of the missions. And, as for the personnel involved in construction of four staging airstrips near Nordvik, Taymyr Peninsula, there was no need to think about information leaks.
The mission was to be a maximum effort one, with all 50 Soviet atomic bombs available.