The story of a Russian bomber

The Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense. How it works. Day 1.
So, today was my first day in the archives. It is located 65 kilometers from my house. The road by car took 2 hours in the morning (rush hour).
Archive (an organization) is a military unit. You need a special permit to get there. Previously I gathered information on the Internet, so I was ready. I phoned the responsible officer and explained the purpose of my visit. I was given a pass to enter the territory. On the territory there are several large buildings that look like ordinary stocks (warehouse). This is a repository of documents. Each of the stores has its own specialization. In one store are preserve the documents of Divisions, in the other - Armies, in the third - Fronts documents and so on. But you can't go in store yourself. The researcher have to go in the reading room. There I explained the purpose of my arrival again. After that I wrote the statement (request) to allow me to work in the archive. Resolution signed by the Chief and it is valid for 1 month. Then I can get the inventories, which contain information about all documents in the archives. According to these inventories do you choose and order the folders that you need.
Your order is checked (which would fit the purpose, about which you said in the beginning). After that you can go back home. The folders that you ordered, you will be given tomorrow. All of these procedures I went through quite quickly. Nevertheless, I had the feeling that I was in the past, some 20 years ago. I guess it's difficult to understand for non-Russian. But our country has changed very fast and strongly over the past 20 years. And, it turns out, there are organizations where time stands still and there is no any development. The organizing process is built no rational there. A lot of funny and bizarre things. It is strictly forbidden to use mobile phone inside the archive. You can use a laptop, but only as a typewriter. 1 month of use a laptop you must pay 120 rubles ($ 4), but you need to go to another building, write down the pile of papers and pay the money. In response, you also will be given a pile of papers, written by hand. I think that the cost of using a laptop will be equal to the cost of paper covered with writing this. You cannot use a laptop to connect to the Internet. If you break this rule, you denied the right to work in the archives for 1 year. In the reading room you cannot bring anything other than pens, notebooks and laptops. I carried a bottle of water and I got the remark. Archives staff are mostly older women. They look tired and not very friendly, but still try to do their work. Reading room include seats for 50 people. It was filled about halfway. The audience is different: students of history to research papers, professional historians, amateur like me. Several people were looking for their relatives.
Most importantly, stock with documents of General Commander of Air Force temporarily closed. It will open in February. I had to start the search with the aviation divisions. I have examined the inventory.
It turned out that for example in the 42nd Division has only a few folders with the orders, the 52nd Division has the documents only since 1942. The 51st Division have papers that interest me in the first place. This is the dates from the operational department about engines, airplanes, write-offs and losses.
So I ordered the delivery from the stores 10 folders (you cannot ordered more at once). Tomorrow It will be the first time in my life when I keep real fighting documents in my hands. I will tell you everything interesting that I see there
To be continued ....

 

Excellent work man! Very entertaining thread. Voted. Saluted.

 

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Many thanks to all! This work really gives me pleasure. And I'm glad that it can be useful to other. So, I`m continue
The Archive. Day 2.
Today, I studied the documents of the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment, 42th, 51st and 52nd Division. Just say that among them I did not found trace of the aircraft with number 5605.
The fact is, for example, documents of the 1st Reconnaissance Regiment contain only orders on staff (who have left or arrived, for whatever reason, and so on). Period: from August 1941 to December 1941. Entries of this folders are very short and concise. But even they can make some conclusions. There are mixing heroism and carelessness. For example there are a few messages (in a row, every day) that the crews will not be returned to the airfield from combat mission. Most likely they were killed. They are no news about them. Then follows a paper (order) to exclude them from the lists of military unit and sending notices to their relatives. Following - several orders for the punishment of officers who drank drunk and fired from his revolvers. Then comes the message about the crew that was shot down over the territory occupied by the enemy. The second crew saw them knocked down and they jumped with a parachute. Then follows a paper (order) to exclude them from the lists of military units, as they were captured. After a few pages (through several days), there is a new document, where the crew back on the lists of military unit, since they escaped from captivity, were able to cross the front line and returned to his unit. In this situation, there was no filtration camps of the NKVD. Apparently the camp did not put all who were in captivity.
I forgot to write at once: in the Archives forbidden to photograph the documents themselves. You can order a photocopy of an official, but
1. It makes for very long, a few days.
2. It may be low quality, because the sheets are stitched together and you cannot turn them on 180 degrees. In addition, copying machines is very old.
3. You may not be allowed to make a copy (even officially) if the document is not related to your search.
Therefore, the people, sitting in the reading room, copy documents by hand or printed on the laptop. If then they use part of these documents in their books or articles, in a reference they point to "address" of the document in the Archives. It looks like this: ЦАМО РФ, фонд 35, опись 11605, дело 4227, лист 92. Using this set of letters and numbers, anyone can find quotation document in the archives and verify the citation. So, if you do not mind, I allow myself to omit the "address" of documents, which I describe, that would not take up too much space here.
Among the documents of the 42nd Division, I found an interesting document - order of treatment with a mixture of "КС". It said that "despite repeated warnings that the plane with a mixture of the "КС" must not be landing, the pilot XXXXX did this. As a result mixture was hit and ignited, aircraft and crew were burned. We should remind that if the mixture of the "КС" has not been used on an enemy, you first need to throw it in any desolate, fire-safe place and then landing".
I realized that here are talking about some special incendiary bombs, which use the Air Force of the Red Army. After a few pages, I saw another document. This was the instruction as necessary to extinguish the fire, which started from incendiary bombs from the Wehrmacht.
I don't know if this kinds of weapons are prohibited by international treaties and conventions, but these documents show that the Red Army and Wehrmacht used them in 1941. I did not know about this before.
Then I read another interesting document about the bombs. This report, on July 1941, of officer on duty, which was wrote after the bombing of the airfield by Luftwaffe. He writes that the bombs were dropped did not made from metal, but from cement and clay. They exploded (except one), caused a panic, but did not cause any material harm. Never heard of such a bomb. I read about the fact that the pilots dropped the empty barrel. They fell with a terrible roar, and also caused a panic. I have never read about the bombs, made of clay.
To be continued.....

 

You are a class act IRu

 

This is one great story!

 

Thank you very much to you all for your attention to this subject!
I'll add some more interesting facts that were discovered by reading the documents.
The big difference in the severity of punishment for the same fault.
In June 1941, the first days of war. The military unit was far away from the front line. At night an officer on duty saw a soldier who fell asleep on duty. The soldier was sentenced to 10 years in prison for this. This is a very severe punishment. In these days another soldier lost his rifle (he fell asleep in the car and it was stolen). The soldier got 5 years in prison. Then, after a few months (October 1941, the Germans were close in Moscow) was the same case - a soldier asleep on duty. For this he got only 10 days of the guardhouse. 10 years and 10 days for the same offense. It was in the same military unit. The only difference in period of time. I could not understand it.
Among the documents of the 51st Division were acts of write-downs and losses of aircraft. There I saw a few numbers of aircraft that were very similar I'm looking for (5605).
I read the description, as these aircraft were lost. All aircraft - bomber DB-3. This is a very different fate. Just the episodes of the war:
Aircraft number 5604 was shot down by fighters of Red Army (by mistake) near the town of Naro-Fominsk. It's not far from Moscow. The crew escaped by parachute. Gunner-radio operator was killed.
Aircraft number 5607 October 12, 1941, crashed during take-off as a result of incorrect actions of pilot. The plane exploded, the entire crew was died.
Aircraft number 5705 November 11, 1941 returning from a combat mission. Luftwaffe fighter shot down him. Only the pilot escaped by parachute. The rest of the crew perished.
I wonder what the mission has this crew. He flew no bomb. He flew to Poland (near the city of Vilna and Warsaw), and dropped leaflets (paper with text on it) there which was printed the text of Stalin's speech at a military parade in Moscow on November 7, 1941. "The enemy will be defeated, the victory will be ours."
It was not an isolated case. I found a lot of orders and reports on how these bombers flew over the German troops and dropped different leaflets (despite the fact that they were often knocked down).
There are the names and number of leaflets. Some names sounds naive and cause a smile. But apparently in that time it was also their arms. I quote in full:
"October 28, 1941 were dropped leaflets:
"What's going on in Germany" - 340 000 pieces
"True" - 36 000 pieces
"News from the front" - 93 000 pieces
"Hitler's gang makes Germany in a house of prostitution" - 120 000 leaflets
"International information" - 146 000 pieces
Total - 735 000 pieces "
The names of leaflets from another report: "The Arabian tales," "Smelly Kitchen," "Hitler wanted to exterminate the Finnish people," "Deep sigh of German Soldier," "They went to the Red Army" (interestingly was anybody there, in October 1941, when the Germans were convinced that the war would end soon?). So, not only Goebbels used a propaganda
To be continued ...

 

I think you have the makings of a book here.

 

your exploits in the archives remind me of this forum thread.

Russian (Soviet) archives question - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum

 

Thanks for the interesting link, PFlint. I ought to say that despite the fact that this post was written in 2005 and it says about another archive (RVGA), still has much in common, and almost nothing has changed.
On the other hand, today a man, who have been working with archival documents for a long time, told me that it is now is freer then it was before. Previously, your notebook in which you make statements, was checked regularly. And you could be asked to delete some records. Now we can write out any information from the documents. Yes, and more. If you are from another country, then you can work in the archive only after permission from a parent organization (military or FSB - I did not specify)

 

I am afraid that my "book" will have a break soon. Today I found nothing. For tomorrow I ordered the rest of the folder about the Divisions and a few folders in the Far Eastern front. If there is not any information about the plane with the number 5605, then in this thread will break, as long as I can receive documents from the Fond of Command of the Air Force. Despite this, today I write out all data of losses of long-range aviation pilots in October 1941. The losses are very large. As I wrote above, long-range bomber aircraft could be used effectively only on the big goals of the enemy. This could be a military plants, areas of oil production, large troop concentrations. The fact that the bombing was carried out from a high altitude (from 3,000 to 7,000 meters). Therefore, accuracy was a low, so, goals should be large. In fact, it was not so. In September 1941, the medium bombers (Pe-2, IL-2 and others) has become scarce. The fighters, that was supposed to protect the bombers, was little too. Factories of the aviation industry moved to the Urals and Siberia. They did not produce new aircraft. But these days the Wehrmacht began their final offensive against Moscow. And the General Headquarters of the Red Army used all the reserves, which were at that moment. Every day there were orders to bomb the crossing river, the cluster of tanks or aircraft. Therefore, I read the documents and I understand that the pilots of long-range bomber aircraft were as suicide bombers, as kamikaze. They were used not as it should.
From the docs, I read today:
"The crew of Lt. XXXXX was instructed to destroy the bridge over the River Berezina. He acted without a cover (supporting of fighters). The height of the bombing was - 600 meters. The plane shot down by enemy antiaircraft fire, the crew was killed."
"The crew of Lt. NNNNN ..... bombing altitude - 300 meters ...... aircraft shot down"
"The pilot, Lt. YYYYY, tried to bomb the concentration of enemy forces, using the DB-3 as a dive bomber. As a result, he lost control, crashed, the crew was killed."
Another documents, October 1941:
"You should have to pass in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment 3 aircraft from the Test Area of the Air Force Red Army ...2 aircraft from the Civil Air Fleet ...4 planes from the Scientific-Research Institute of Aviation ... "
It seems that this really was the last reserves. These aircraft had a little recourse and a lot of extra equipment and devices, but not weapons. Use them in battle was impossible. Pilots write about it in their reports.
Another interesting document:
"Squadron captain XXXX was ordered to fly to free hunting. When he known that his plane was defective, and no other aircraft, he, without permission, started aircraft U-2, loaded it with hand grenades and flew in the direction of the front line. After his return he was imprisoned in the guardhouse for their violation of order. I'm waiting for further instructions, what to do with him"
As I understand, this captain acted as a pilot of WWI, because U-2 is the training plane, it hasn't any weapons.
To be continued...

 

Buddy gets tossed in the clink because he flies a trainer with no bomb capability, and bombs with hand grenades....Give that enterprising fellow a commendation...Good stuff IRu.

 

Great work!

 

These posts are being enjoyed by me...very interesting digging out rare information by our friend in Russia.

 

I express my gratitude to everyone who is interested in the topic. It helps me and makes me obligated to continue these searches))
So, yesterday I finished watching the folders containing the documents of long-range aviation divisions. I have not found information about the plane with the number 5605. Next, I'll look for this information among the documents of the higher level - the Fund of Command of the Air Force. This Fund is not working yet, but I've already looked at some of its inventory. There's a lot of documents: thousands of folders. Each folder contains from 10 to 700 documents. The inventory has a lot of documents of registration aircraft number and engines. I hope I can find the necessary information there.
It is interesting that among inventories of folders of Fund Command Air Forces, I found these names:
- Directives, plans, instructions from the General Staff of the Red Army to Command of the Air Force (1940-1941 years) - 3 folders, about 1,500 documents;
- Descriptions of violations of air space border of the USSR for 1940-1941 year
- Maps of moving out parts of the Air Force to operational airfields (February - March 1941)
All these folders are marked as unclassified. It means that any professional researcher can get them and see: what action the Soviet Union did before the war. At least in part the use of Air Force.
Separately, I would say the following.
During those days I saw 16 folders. That's about 4,000 sheets, or about 3 thousand documents. All these documents were about the long range bombers. These documents describe the personnel (staff of pilots) or situation with military equipment (aircraft). Almost all of these folders are for 1941 (I chose them specifically). Only one folder (52nd Division) contains documents from 1941 to 1945. I would like to share some general conclusions I made for myself after reading all these documents. What impressions have remained with me.
1. Before visiting the archives I thought that almost all losses of the Red Army Air Force aircraft were suffered from the Luftwaffe. Now I'm sure that it is not. Here is an statement from the 52nd Division (this is the most illustrative example):
"Loss of aircraft:
a) due to anti-aircraft artillery and aircraft of enemy - 48 aircraft
b) because of failure planes in the air, or landing in bad weather (I do not know why these two different items were together) - 41 aircraft
c) accidents and air-disasters (ie, low-skilled of pilots) - 11 aircraft. "
In my opinion paragraphs b) and c) are broken is not correct. I would beat these reasons for:
- Poor quality of aircraft
- Low-skilled of pilots.
These two reasons have consequence - lost of 52 (41 and 11) aircraft.
The actions of the enemy - lost of 48 aircraft provide.
(It is convenient to assume a percentage )
I have seen some documents about the losses of aircraft. None of these losses on the Luftwaffe did not exceed the losses from other causes.
Moreover, the statement from the 52nd Division did not consider planes that brought down by the Soviet pilots and antiaircraft gunners, by mistake. I've seen a lot of acts of write-off the aircraft, where there was a reason - that plane was shot down by Soviet.
I have to admit that the loss of the Red Army could be less. Sometimes Red Army ruined ourselves.
2. I did not expect that, in addition to heroism, quantity of documents of misconduct among the pilots will be so big. So many cases of drunkenness, fights and accidents occurring because of this. For example, in the same 52-nd Division I seen such documents (1945):
- Navigator, Lt. XXXX, raped Polish woman - he was shot by sentence of the Military Tribunal (April 1945!)
- Pilots, lieutenants YYYY and NNNN while drunk shot and killed each other (May 9, 1945, on Victory Day!!)
- Major VVVVV, Hero of the Soviet Union (!), being drunk and got into the plane took off. As a result of air-hooliganism - navigator, Lt. AAA fell out from this airplane and broken (document dated May 17, 1945, the war was over !!)
I am very sorry for these people. I can only say one banal thing - war is not only heroism, is messy too.
The continuation of this theme will. I don`t have accurate information when I receive documents from the Archives of the Command of Air Force. But it should happen in February.
Still, after examining the documents, I have many thoughts about the faulty equipment. This allows me to take a fresh look at the history of the war (especially in its initial period). Perhaps I'll write about it separately, the next time.

 

Also for me....I was also interested to see the 'U-2' mentioned - this aircraft is often referred to as the 'sewing machine' in German accounts of the Eastern Front.

( BTW I hope you are keeping warm, IRu...we are 'enjoying' some of your weather here in England ! )

 

I did not know what Archives you were in...I know there are several.
and although I know it is kind of an old post I was curious as to what you thought had changed and what was still the same.
(being a different archive I am sure there are some)
I read that one of the archives was being digitized (put on computer) but it is not accessible to the general public.

 

Great info! Thanks for sharing!

 

A Russian hero gets drunk, takes off without authorization and the navigator falls out to his death?...That's such an awesome bit of history. The little things that make up the whole. Excellent.

 

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About digitizing archives. Yes, now it is not so bad as it was. For several years in Russia there is a digitization of records by combat losses of WW II. Results are uploaded to the site
www.obd-memorial.ru
Here anybody can write the name of his relative, and if you're lucky, you will see a scanned copy of the military document that lists your relative. Or you can know where your relative was buried. Of course, this is a very big job and it will still take several years. I think now it is not completed a half way.
On the photo above is scan of my grandfather`s record

 

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Thank you very much, Martin. It became wormer for me. Yes, Moscow is frosty now. In these cold winter I remember war game at a time when I was in military school, in 1984. There was no snow, the sun shone and the was a frost about minus 20 degrees. (You can see this in photo above. Also photo of U-2 here). We were not prepared for such weather, and much froze. I distinctly remember that at the moment I hardly decided that after the military school, I'm going to serve hot or warm place, but not cold. Two years later I was in Siberia. The most severe frost, I have been experienced there - minus 44 degrees. After that, I had fear nothing.