"what if"
 

Support or refute this statement:

WW2 could have been won by 1943 had the VVS pursued the same strategic bombing campaign as US and UK.

Why do people have to post topics without giving their own opinion? Gah!

Anyway, no, it couldn't. The VVS was in a pretty bad position to launch strategic bombing attacks on important targets until well into 1944. It would also have diverted resources from its frontline aviation which was just becoming an effective force in 1943, and thus would've made the VVS considerably less effective. Not to mention the Soviets had no large strategic bomber force to draw on.

There's also the questionable effectiveness of the strategic bombing campaign itself, but that's wildly debated, so I won't go into that.

And what would they use to bomb with? TB-3?

@Raptor - I actually do not think it would have worked out either; a friend and I were discussing it a few days ago and I thought I would bring it up here.

Russians did had some decent bomber designs

like the Ilyushin DB-3, the later Ilyushin DB-3F renamed to Il-4, Petlyakov Pe-2 & Pe-8, Tupolev ANT-40 (or Tupolev-SB) & Tu-2 and the Yermolayev Yer-2.

HunterICX

Though of those only the Pe-8 and the Yer-2 were really capable of long range strategic bombing. Also, there was a lot of problems with production of the Pe-8, so it would've been hard for the VVS to gather enough of them to do any real damage.

Yes correct, and so the Pe-8 was build in too few numbers to be effective.

and iirc due the increase of Pe-8 losses from 1 every 100ish to 1 every 40-50ish sorties the ones that where still operational where pulled from Combat sorties somewhere in mid 1944 at least they wheren't used as primary combat aircraft anymore.

HunterICX

Did the Russians even have a plane that could reach that far in to Germany? Its about 1200 miles from Moscow to Berlin. The Pe-8 is the only thing that comes close besides the 800 or so B-25s we gave them.

Also just as important the Russians didn't have a fighter that could escort them. At this time we had the Mustang to escort our bombers. So with out escort what are they going to do? Fly at night? They didn't have anything like the Oboe system and Pathfinders like the British had so it would be blind luck to hit anything.

So no, it would have been a dismal failure to try.

I belive they didn't have anything that could escort that far into Germany, maybe the YAK-9 if it had drop tanks. It had roughly the same range as a Jug. But as for tactics they could have been tough to the Russians.

According to Wikipedia a Yak-9D's combat range (without tanks) is 845 miles. The Yak-9 could escort them in to Germany but they are going to stay there afterward! :03:

Actually I don't think that any allied fighter could fly from Moscow to Berlin and back. The distances between the German homeland and the Russian front line in 1943 were too great for any fighter aircraft to be effective.

The Aircraft Carrier HMS Great Britain certainly proved its worth as it was only about 600 miles from Berlin. Putting it in range of both fighters and bombers.

From both sides! :doh:

The Soviets had no real reason to put resources into developing a long range escort fighter during the war, but they did make one after it (The Lavochkin La-11). They could theoretically have gotten one into production by 1943 or 1944, if it was of any use to them.

They could have also developed more on the MiG-3 airframe.