Impact Strategy, page 22
“"Owls", maneuver down to the left! Now!”
Flashes. Many dozens of flashes all around. Not all planes have time to dodge.
“"Cruiser", this is "Owl Eight"! Multiple shrapnel damage. Fourth engine disabled. There is no fire, but there are wounded in the crew.”
“"Cruiser", this is "Owl Four". The fifth one is on fire!”
Damage reports fill the airwaves. Two TB-7s fall out of formation and hurtle toward the ground, breaking apart in flight. Three more bombers are damaged, but are still flying.
“Close ranks! All planes return to their original course. Open barrage fire. I'll give directions with tracers.”
At the same time I open fire from the cannon. The sensation of firing the VYa-23 is completely inexpressible. Ten shells per second! The plane trembles from the recoil and begins to drift noticeably off course, this huge TB-7! Now I understand why these guns are not put on other planes, except the fully armored IL-2. Captain Pusep aligns the plane, but I immediately change the direction of fire, showing the other gunners where the enemy is.
The hull of the TB-7 is groaning and shaking. Ignoring this, I continue to fire. Choosing the Volkov-Yartsev cannon was not my fancy. I knew we were going to be hit by rockets, though I had no idea they would be so massive, which meant the enemy had to be stopped at least a kilometer away. This is too much for a machine gun, and it would be difficult even for me to hit an enemy aircraft from this distance in aerial combat. The VYa-23 has a higher muzzle velocity and much better ballistic characteristics. This cannon can be fired more confidently...
A burst! A second passes, and another bud of explosion blossoms in the dark sky, but I have no time to rejoice - there are too many opponents. I just note that another marker has disappeared from the virtual map and turn the gun slightly to the left. A burst!
The gunners of the other bombers don't spare any shells either. The distance to the enemy is rapidly decreasing. The German planes also open fire.
“"Cruiser", this is "Owl Eight". Second engine's down! I'm going down! Crew, out of the plane!”
"Owl-2" silently, without a sound on the air, flares up and rushes to the ground. Apparently, the radio operator and pilots are killed and there is no one to report.
The German planes skip over our formation and begin a turn with climbing altitude. Two of them end up in the rear hemisphere of my plane. Eight RS-82s are immediately sent after them. Flashes of explosions! One down! The second seems to be intact. A burst!
For the enemy, the overall picture of the battle disintegrates into separate fragments. There are only seven Germans left. They have no contact with each other, and apparently the surviving pilots do not know how many of their comrades have been shot down. A burst! A sharp itch of implant behind the ear. There it is! I knew the rocket-powered interceptor aircraft wouldn't stay away. It seems that its pilot knows what's going on much better than his colleagues. His target is my TB-7. How fast it is...
In the dark of night, a bright tail of flame marks the course of the Me-163 jet. The German pilot has only one approach to the target. We both know that. He won't shoot from a distance of a kilometer - the chance of missing is too great and there won't be a second attempt. Distance is three thousand meters ... two ... I carefully aim the gun. One and a half... A burst! A second pause to adjust the sight... A burst! The sky ahead brightens for a moment, as if a little sun is lighting up in it. This is not gasoline. The instant reaction between hundreds of kilograms of hydrazine hydrate, methanol and hydrogen peroxide creates an extremely bright flash, with red-hot jets of fire shooting out in all directions.
I don't have time to admire this spectacle - I have seven other targets. Not seven, six. One of my bombers' gunners made an accurate hit. ShVAK is no VYa-23, of course, but it can fondle pretty well too, especially at short range.
The Germans, it seems, begin to realize that they have nothing to catch here, and try to leave. In vain. They'd better jump right away - they don't stand a chance, the twin-engine fighters are too clumsy. A burst!
***
The door to Beria's office opened quietly.
“Lavrentiy Pavlovich, we have just received a message from Senior Lieutenant Nagulin,” the secretary reported, “He lost four bombers. Several planes were damaged. The code phrase "the sky is clear" is received.”
“I'm going to the General Staff,” Beria said as he left the office.
The phrase "the sky is clear" meant that the goal of the operation had been achieved and that the enemy would offer no resistance to the second wave of bombers, consisting of 48 Pe-2s.
It was just under two hours before dawn. The People's Commissar knew that immediately after the bombing of enemy positions, the tank brigades of the Bryansk and Kalinin fronts would take the offensive, perhaps the most important offensive of the war.
***
“We expected the Russians to strike at headquarters and communications centers, my Führer. This was the case at Kiev, and then it brought success to the Russians. As soon as information was received about a group of enemy heavy bombers crossing the front line, we immediately took action. The supposed targets of the attacks were evacuated and dispersed, but the enemy's heavy bombers dropped 1,000-kilogram bombs not on empty headquarters, but on our airfields and anti-aircraft batteries. It happened two hours before dawn. An hour later a new air strike followed, which we simply could not repel. The night fighters were killed in combat with the Russian TB-7s, many planes were damaged on the ground, and the runways of the airfields were plowed over with many meters of craters.”
“Why did your troops leave the defended positions contrary to the order received, General-Field Marshal?” Hitler hissed, coming close to von Bock.
“My soldiers did everything they could,” said the commander of Army Group Center, urgently summoned to Berlin. “Russian dive-bombers disrupted Rommel's and Goth's tank formations prepared for counterattacks, and inflicted heavy losses on the troops occupying key defense lines. Without the support of tanks, the infantry could not localize the breakthroughs of the enemy tank brigades.”
“And what is the result? Are you able to hold at least Vyazma?” Hitler almost shouted, slamming his fist on the table with maps with force.
“My Führer,” General Yodl drew Hitler's attention, “we have just received a report from Colonel General Göpner. The advanced Russian units cut the highway and the Moscow-Minsk railroad west and east of Vyazma. The city is completely surrounded, and street fighting is taking place.”
An electrified silence reigned in the Führer's headquarters for several seconds. Hitler was looking at the table, glancing at the map of the Moscow direction, which had already become obsolete.
“Field Marshal General, you have failed in the management of the troops entrusted to you, failed in the offensive and allowed a retreat without orders. I'm relieving you of command! From now on, I will personally lead Army Group Center.”
***
From the Soviet Information Bureau
Situation report of December 5, 1941
Today our troops continued their offensive in the Vyazma direction. After a powerful night strike by bomber aviation, tank brigades of the Kalinin and Bryansk Fronts, supported by rifle divisions and artillery fire, launched a decisive attack on the positions of the German fascist invaders. By the middle of the day the organized resistance of the enemy was broken and at 17:40 the advanced units of both fronts connected west of Vyazma, closing the encirclement ring around the German Army Group Center ...
I put the newspaper "Pravda" aside and looked up at my interlocutor.
“Comrade Nagulin, there is a great deal of your merit in what is written here,” said Marshal Shaposhnikov, maintaining an unflappable seriousness on his face. “At the meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command Comrade Stalin personally noted your contribution to the success of the operation. I had a conversation with Comrade Beria, and we both came to the conclusion that your rank is not at all commensurate with the scale of the tasks you are successfully carrying out. However, there is one annoying obstacle in the way of your career development. You are a senior lieutenant of state security, which means, in fact, you are a major. In order for you to qualify for the next rank, you need an advanced military education, and you don't even have a high school diploma. Nevertheless, you proved yourself not only as an exceptionally effective fighter, scout, and saboteur, but also as a design engineer. I consulted with Comrade Beria, and he involved Lieutenant General of the Engineering Forces Gundorov, head of the Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy, he, in turn, solicited feedback from the directors of the plants where the RGN-1 grenade launchers were being manufactured.
In view of wartime conditions and the very high technological sophistication of the weapons you have developed, it has been decided by way of exception to issue you a diploma of the Military Engineering Academy without passing the course of study and final examinations.
And then... Congratulations, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel. Don't be surprised that it's me, not your immediate supervisor, who's informing you of the new rank. By personal order of Comrade Stalin, as of today your new duty station is the General Staff. By the same order, you are transferred to my direct subordination.”
***
The situation on the front remained very unstable. Both sides had practically exhausted their forces. The Germans were feverishly gathering troops to form a solid defense west of Vyazma, while the Soviet armies, having lost almost all their tanks in the offensive, brought up their artillery and burrowed into the frozen ground, trying to hold the encirclement front at all costs.
The Wehrmacht command curtailed all its activity in the southern direction and hastily replenished the first tank group of Ewald von Kleist with men and equipment and moved it to Vyazma. The formations were also withdrawn en masse from the north, from near Leningrad, they were urgently thrown to plug the huge hole that had emerged in the place of the encircled Army Group Center.
The Germans inside the giant Moscow pocket were not going to surrender either, but troops cut off from supplies could not maintain high combat effectiveness for a long time, especially in the very cold winter. On the night of December 6, the first real frosts came. The thermometer had dropped to minus 25 degrees, and I knew that this weather would become the norm of life for the next few months, although with thaws. Dry fine snow was falling from the sky, covering everything around with a frozen white blanket, and the Wehrmacht elite was slowly beginning to freeze in the Russian trap into which it had been driven by the evil genius of the Führer.
***
“I need a clear and definite answer, Reichsmarschall,” Hitler looked pointedly at the commander of the German Air Force. “There is an army of nearly a million men in the Moscow pocket. I need to know if you are capable of supplying it with Luftwaffe forces.”
“My Führer,” Hermann Göring's voice did not sound confident, “the Luftwaffe will do its best, but calculations show that we will need to deliver almost 2,000 tons of various supplies to the encircled troops every day. Even if we were to assemble all of Germany's transport aviation, including captured equipment, we could only deliver about a third of that volume.”
“How long can Army Group Center hold out in an encirclement on such a supply, taking into account the reserves available in the pocket?” Hitler turned his gaze to Halder.
“A month, no more, and with each day the fighting ability of the troops will decrease. The weather is extremely unfavorable. Neither equipment nor people can stand it. Not all Wehrmacht soldiers have warm uniforms. My Führer, an immediate breakthrough with a simultaneous strike from the outside is the only chance of saving Army Group Center. The unblocking strike cannot be delayed. As soon as the First Panzer Group arrives at Vyazma... ”
“We'll get the same problem again,” Hitler interrupted the General. “Kleist's tanks will be hit by Russian air forces and artillery, who will know exactly when and where to strike to inflict maximum damage on us.”
“But we have no other means...”
“Yes, there are!” said Hitler, “There is a means, and we will use it as soon as Kleist is ready to strike.”
The Führer was silent, but none of his generals risked breaking the pause.
“There is a field of armaments in which we have an undeniable superiority over the Russians, both technologically and strategically. The Soviet Army is not ready for full-scale chemical warfare! (5) Their gas masks are obsolete, and their infantry does not have enough chemical protection and skills to use it. Our army, on the other hand, is well prepared to withstand war gases, and our stockpiles of chemical weapons and their quality are many times greater than anything the Russians have. Finally, we have a strategic advantage. Russian planes cannot reach German cities, and we are in enemy territory, and any communist front-line city, including Moscow, could be chemically bombed.”
“What about the British?” said Brauchitsch cautiously, “they are already bombing our cities. If we use war gases against the Russians, they might start dropping chemical bombs on Hamburg and Berlin.”
“To get a chemical attack on London in return? Churchill won’t risk it because of the Russians, whom he and Roosevelt had already written off in advance.”
***
To meet with Korolev, I was taken to Radio Street, where the Moscow NKVD's special prison TsKB-29 was located. The designer greeted me warily. He had seen all sorts of things since 1938, and he didn't expect anything particularly good from the new people who appeared in his life.
Our conversation was tense. Talking about "rocket 212" didn't go well, and I understood why. It was the delay in the development of this project that became one of the charges for which Korolev was first sent to the Kolyma, and then he ended up here, in the NKVD's "Special Design Bureau", commonly informally known as the “Tupolev's sharashka”.
“Sergei Pavlovich, you're developing airplanes now, am I right?”
“Yes,” answered Korolev.
“But as far as I know, the closest thing to you is rockets and everything related to jet propulsion. Even now you are working on your own initiative to develop an aero torpedo and a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft.”
“Do you know that too?” Korolev grinned bitterly.
“Yes, I do, Sergey Pavlovich. And I can tell you one of the reasons that made me turn to you. The Germans already have such an interceptor, and recently my Pe-2 was shot down by a missile fired from this very plane.”
“You're an engineer, not a pilot,” said Korolev in surprise.
“Senior Lieutenant Kalina, pilot of the Pe-2, died in that air battle. I served as gunner and observer. By a fluke, I managed to get off with a wound in the leg.”
“An observer and gunner with the rank of lieutenant colonel?” asked Korolev incredulously, “Besides, you got a pass here, too... I don't think it's as simple as you're trying to make it sound.”
“It's not. As I said, I'm interested in the cruise missile project that you were working on before your arrest. I don't really care what you were accused of, and I only care about the result. I have familiarized myself with the drawings, calculations, and test results made by the third department of NII-3 under your supervision.”
“The tests were done without me,” Korolev grimly objected.
“I know, but it doesn't matter now. Your missile is the first step toward a weapon that will allow us to show the enemy that he cannot feel safe anywhere, not even in his deepest rear. The range of your prototype, of course, will not provide a solution to this problem, but the potential inherent in your missile design, allows us to bring it up to 500 kilometers, while increasing the weight of the warhead.”
“This is a fancy. With the technology available to us, it is impossible. But even if we assume that we build such a rocket, our suppliers will not be able to make a control system for it. The Central Wired Communications Laboratory already tried this once, and it didn't work out,” the designer grimaced irritably, remembering another item from the indictment. “And without such a system, at a distance of 500 kilometers we would get such a deflection that launching a missile would lose all meaning.”
“Take a look at this,” I pulled out a stack of drawings and calculations from my bulky briefcase, “I made some sketches. I think you might be interested in them.”
“Are you a design engineer?” Korolev was surprised.
“In a way. Let's just say I'm mostly a marksman, scout and saboteur, but I know my way around guns since I was a kid and I'm good at math, too.”
Korolev unfolded the first blueprint and delved into it for a few minutes. Then he silently put it aside and took the second sheet. He did not ask any questions, but I could see the intense work of his mind on the designer's face.
“And you did all this yourself?” Korolev finally got away from studying the blueprints.
“Not all of it. I was consulted by various specialists, including those from the Wired Communications Laboratory you mentioned. But mostly, yes.”
“Can I keep the drawings and calculations?”
“That's why I brought them. At my request, Comrade Beria has agreed to relieve you of all other tasks for a period of two weeks. How long will it take you to give your opinion on the project?”
“I'll be done in three days, but I have a few questions now.”
“I'm listening.”
“Why a mobile launcher? A stationary launcher is easier, at least to begin with. And what is a tank for? There are three-axle trucks, tractors, after all.”
“Sergei Pavlovich, we have no opportunity to move toward our goal in small steps. The enemy is already ahead of us in missile technology. And as for the tank... Stationary launchers and unarmored self-propelled systems are vulnerable, and we will have to launch missiles almost from the front lines to reach targets as deep behind enemy lines as possible. The rocket will be heavy, and we have to take it to the launch site on bad roads. The T-34 is the best way to do this.”
