How the "Stalinist Falcons" foiled an American nuclear strike on the USSR

“Unreplaceable”, or, better to say, officially unrecognized wars of the Soviet Union, which were waged almost all the time while a great country existed ... This topic is as huge as, alas, little covered by serious researchers. Its relevance is not only not lost over the years, but, on the contrary, is increasing many times today. The participation of our soldiers in armed conflicts in other countries - who and why all this was needed? The liberal public, for sure, immediately finds its answer - something about "imperial ambitions" or "aggressive trepidations."





Truth, of course, lies in a completely different plane. Fighting in distant lands and in alien skies, our compatriots defended not only them, but, above all, their country, saving it from new invasions. One of the most striking examples on this subject is the history of the feat of the Soviet aces who participated in the Korean War of 1950-1953. Most likely, all of us live today precisely because of their skill and courage! Why is that? I'll tell you now.

I must begin my story with the glorious events undeservedly forgotten by the majority of our compatriots, who this month will be already 68 years old. Not since the “black October” of the US Air Force, which forever rested on them with indelible disgrace and therefore it is still denied overseas. First, let's talk about exactly what intentions and plans were frustrated in that distant October 1951.

World War II is over? Welcome to the Third!

Some historians are inclined to believe that the first plans for a military attack on the Soviet Union began to take shape with our forced "allies" in the Anti-Hitler coalition sometime in the second half of 1945, when nuclear weapons were not only created by the United States, but also already tested in action on living people. Someone makes reference to the famous "Fulton Speech" by Winston Churchill. Like, it all started with her. I allow myself to object - both those and others are wrong. The first report, which spoke about the inevitability of a future clash with the USSR, was sent to the White House by the Committee of US Chiefs of Staff in 1944. Around the same time, materials about the not-so-peaceful plans of Great Britain that she had for the post-war period laid down on Stalin’s table. In the victorious 45th case, the Americans and their accomplices already had what is called “ointment”. There is nothing surprising in this. One of the main goals, for the sake of which, in fact, they started the world massacre, was never achieved. Yes, the United States and Britain, having suffered human and material losses funny in comparison with our country, turned out to be “victors of Nazism”, having received at the same time half the Third Reich, which, in turn, had previously “encircled” the whole of Europe. They enriched themselves in this war simply fabulously, especially the Americans. But the Country of the Soviets not only did not die, as they planned, but gained strength unprecedentedly; moreover, it gained enormous weight and authority throughout the world. The West faced the inevitable prospect of the emergence instead of a single USSR of a whole socialist camp, which inevitably had to expand!

Naturally, neither Washington nor London could reconcile themselves to this in any way. If someone does not believe in my words, I will advise you to look for honest answers to just a couple of questions. First, why did the Americans drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Whom did they want to scare and break? The Japanese, already ready for surrender ?! Or, after all, the Soviet Union, which they wanted to confront with the fact of the existence of “a new weapon of extraordinary destructive power”? It was with this wording that Harry Truman tried to "drive" to Stalin during the Potsdam Conference. Both he and Churchill were greatly surprised by the icy calm with which the Supreme accepted this “stunning news”. "The old man did not understand ..." - these morons decided. And Joseph Vissarionovich, having left the meeting, threw Molotov: “They are stuffing their own price! Kurchatov must be rushed! ” Yes, Stalin did not know everything perfectly, but he was already preparing an answer! And here's your second question: why the hell did the British, and especially the American, aviation “iron” Germany with massive bombing strikes of unprecedented power and cruelty? 130 thousand civilians died under their bombs in Dresden alone! But there were also Aachen, Würzburg, Muenster ... What did they achieve with this cruelty that had no military justification? Break the spirit of the defenders of the Third Reich? In 1945, he was already broken. Destroy the war industry? Its real objects were either already in ruins, or were hidden in underground bunkers, inaccessible to bombing. The answer lies on the surface - the US Air Force in Germany and Japan (Tokyo burned them to the ground without any atomic bombs) honed the strategy and tactics of the monstrous "carpet" bombing, with which they intended to wipe just the USSR from the face of the earth.

Strategic plans for the defeat of our country with the help of nuclear weapons The Pentagon set about baking what is called hot cakes right after the end of hostilities with Japan. Enough has been written about them, so I don’t see the need to list this abomination here again. One point is extremely important - according to the calculations of the same American military specialists, a blow to the Soviet Union had to be struck before 1952. According to their calculations, it was during this period that our country, which was demobilizing the army and moving its entire life from military rails to a peaceful course, should have been the most vulnerable. Well, and, of course, the Pentagon piously believed that the "Russian bast shoes" in life would not cope before this time with the creation of atomic weapons. Well, here our scientists and designers, tearing the cores under the vigilant supervision and sensitive guidance of Lorenius Beria, were broken off in the most cruel way already in 1949. Nevertheless, they didn’t calm down in Washington: the most, perhaps, the most comprehensive Dropshot plan for the destruction of the USSR was adopted by them after the nuclear bomb appeared in our country as well. Why is that? The answer is very simple - in the United States they imagined their own strategic bomber aircraft as an indestructible and invincible “doomsday weapon”. In the armada of "flying fortresses", tested and tested on the killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians during the Second World War, the Pentagon and the White House saw a guarantee of their own victory in the Third. And it was necessary to knock out this very nonsense from their head off the sooner, the better ...

Lee Xi Qing in the Korean sky

The case presented itself perfectly. As a matter of fact, the Americans with their inherent shameless impudence themselves asked for it. They tried to “establish democracy” on the Korean Peninsula, either wanting to show the whole world their “indestructible determination”, or rather, to get, in addition to Japan, another “unsinkable aircraft carrier” closer to the borders of the USSR. To make it more convenient for us to “roll out bombs” ... On the other hand, for the sake of historical objectivity, it should be noted that the North Korean comrades, who brought the “light of communism” to the South after the conversation held by Kim Il Sung with Stalin in the Kremlin, in spring became especially active. 1950 year. Prior to this, Joseph Vissarionovich restrained the hot Korean guys who were eager for the 38th parallel, as he could, but then, as you can see, I realized - it's time! At the same time, again, Moscow did not intervene in the conflict itself and did not allow Beijing to do so until Pyongyang’s affairs became completely bad. The "sanctified" UN of international intervention, the brave soldiers of North Korea, of course, could not give a proper rebuff. And then her “big brothers” - China and the USSR - entered the business. And while the formations of the Chinese “volunteers” did their best to take part in ground combat operations, then the Soviet Union, the main force that made a huge contribution to this war, was the 64th Fighter Corps, which covered its banners with unfading glory. This unit, in fact, did not have a constant composition - the air force and air defense units included in it underwent constant rotation. Particularly vivid memory of themselves, in the form of warm gratitude in the hearts of Koreans and panic horror, leading to the enuresis of the US Air Force vultures, was left by the aces from the 324th fighter air division, commanded by the legendary Ivan Kozhedub.




Of course, he himself was forbidden to ascend into the air in the most categorical manner. Still not enough ... Generally speaking, our pilots in the skies of Korea, as you yourself probably already guessed, did not exist at all. Their planes had the identification marks of the DPRK or China, they wore exclusively Chinese uniforms, for which reason they spit terribly. Soviet pilots have always been pretty dandies, prone to light chic, but here some bags had to be pulled on. Shame! They did not have any documents during the flights; they were strictly forbidden to communicate in Russian. In addition, the zeal and “creative flight of thought” of some counterintelligence comrades went so far as to instruct the pilots ... while in the air to broadcast “phrases in Korean”! Well, after a couple of hooligan attempts to pass off especially complex Matyuki as an Oriental language, even though they refused this dope. But the “pilot Li Si Tsyn”, who became the eternal hero of folklore, was born there and then. And you thought that in Vietnam? No, much earlier. However, this ends the funny moments. The balance of power in that air war was not at all fun. According to some military historians, it was 40: 1, and not at all in our favor. The enemy threw against the tiny country three air armies and all carrier-based aircraft that were teeming in its territorial waters. By the time the Stalinist falcons appeared in the Korean sky, the Americans were completely reigning there. In order to get an approximate idea of ​​what these bastards were doing, it’s enough to recall that only in the first year and a half of the war, the US Air Force consumed 100 thousand tons of high-explosive bombs and 15 million (!) Gallons of napalm. How after that someone in North Korea generally remained alive - I personally do not understand ...

The basis of the air striking power that collapsed on the DPRK was the B-29 Superfortress bombers, who became the successors of the B-17 long-range bombers (just such a few days ago crashed into the United States at a military antique parade), and were really the most serious vehicles in their class. Sealed crew cabins, centralized weapons, many other innovative design solutions, made this bomber a strong opponent in the sky and an even more terrible threat to ground targets. It’s enough to mention that American non-humans dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities just from B-29. Our armada (and stamped of these same "super" was under 4 thousand pieces) were going to wash our cities into nuclear dust. The first U.S. Air Force F-29 Shooting Star and the newer F-80 Thunderjet served as air cover for the B-84. At first, nobody even thought about sending the latest F-86 Sabers - why are they needed in this shabby Korea? Against the old “Yaks” and “Lavochkins” of the DPRK Air Force? You say too ... This euphoria quickly dissipated with the appearance of the first MiG-15 over the peninsula. What "shooting stars" and "thunders" are there! These fighters, which were a true masterpiece of design skill, could not compete with the mercilessly stupid "sabers" about them. In terms of flight performance, the cars were approximately equal, although in some respects, for example, in maneuverability, the Migari Americans clearly excelled. But as for the weapons ... Three automatic guns stood on our fighters - two 23-mm, and one with a 37-millimeter caliber at all, mercilessly beating the enemy at 800 meters. The Sabers had as many as six machine guns. That's just their caliber was 12.7 mm and they did not finish even up to half a kilometer.

"This sheds, not fortresses!"

It is not known for certain which of our pilots, having returned from a combat mission, was the first to give out this phrase, but an insulting nickname stuck to the seemingly formidable B-29s tightly. In general, our fighters were masters of such things - the same "shooters" after meetings in the sky they contemptuously called "jesters". And it was from what. In the very first air battles that unfolded over Korea, Soviet pilots "combed" American fighters as they should - know ours! And then what happened is that in narrow circles it has the name "Black Thursday" of the US Air Force. One hundred percent reliable data on the number of aircraft shot down on April 12, 1951, now no longer find out. On our part, there was nothing, as it were, and the Americans are tumbling as if they were wound up, completely godlessly underestimating the losses incurred that day. Well, what can we expect from them, if in their military statistics on the Korean war a certain number of B-29s in all seriousness appear to be “shot down by no means what” (hussars, keep quiet!). On that day, the command of the US Air Force swore that our aces managed to “fill up” only 3 “super-fortresses”. However, subsequently, representatives of the bomber aviation acknowledged that eight cars were shot down, and more than a dozen more reached their airfields in such a condition that they were subsequently decommissioned. At the same time, according to our intelligence, several such cars shot in the trash crashed while trying to land, and one B-29, in addition, demolished several more cars in neighboring lanes. One way or another, but the mourning in the US Air Force after this lasted a week, and the star-striped "aces" of carpet bombing in the daylight did not rise to the sky for three months. At the same time, our modest pilots counted 12 downed B-29s.




But Americans would not be Americans if it came to them at once. In October of that year, they decided to take revenge, smashing up the Nancy North Korean airfield. Again, dozens of “flying super-fortresses” covered the sky under the cover of either one and a half, or even two (according to various sources) hundreds of fighters. The result was about the same, if not even more shameful. According to various, again, estimates, this attempt cost the Americans either 16, or even 20 bombers, which burned directly on the battlefield. Well, and in the corresponding number of fighters, profuca all the matter. They simply did not reach the goal - less than 50 of our MiGs coped with the task. Happily waiting for the enemy (what if they burst ?!) at the attacked airfield, the reserve reinforcement group did not take off - there was no reason. And it was a complete failure of American aviation, final and irrevocable ... In total, during the Korean War, our pilots destroyed more than a thousand enemy aircraft. Several hundred more enemy vehicles were shot down by anti-aircraft gunners from air defense units of the 64th Corps. The ratio of combat losses of Soviet and American pilots in different periods was 1: 3, or even 1: 4. Alas, there were losses among our pilots. 335 MiGs the enemy managed to bring down. According to official figures, 125 of our falcons folded their heads in Korea. Eternal glory and eternal memory to these heroes ... Incidentally, 262 pieces were handed over to the Korean and Chinese sides only by our aces who were captured and captured by American pilots. In many ways, this was possible due to the fact that our fighters never shot the Americans they shot down ....

Well, they could not, who had recently fought against the Nazis, see deadly enemies in yesterday’s allies. Burn the plane - yes! And mocking a cannon with a parachute ... Yes, let him live! The US Air Force pilots acted in exactly the opposite way - there are plenty of documentary witnesses, veterans of that war, whom they tried to finish off after the bailout. You can tell a lot more about these events. For example, that the Americans “avenged” their own air disgrace in the usual manner - on June 27, 1953, on the day of the end of hostilities in the Korean War, having shot down the peaceful Soviet transport carrier Il- 12 with 20 people on board. Yes, they have always been like that - if you doubted ... Well, the times were Stalin - two days later the US Air Force bomber-reconnaissance bomber RB-50 crashed from the sky, which, moreover, came into our airspace and was the first to open it fire on intercepted fighters. And he asked for it. In the skies of Korea, what many historians consider to be the first ram in the history of Russian jet aircraft - the MiG-15 launched the F-86 without any guns, so only the wings flew apart. Our pilot, by the way, survived. American is not. In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that 22 Soviet aces returned from the war of the Heroes of the Soviet Union. The names of the best of them - Nikolai Sutyagin, Evgeny Pepelyaev, Dmitry Oskin, Sergey Kramarenko, each of which has 15-20 air victories, we must remember and honor forever.

The main outcome of the air war in Korea was the realization by the general of the Pentagon and politicians United States of bitter truth: the Soviet Union at this stage is too tough for them! The vaunted “super-fortresses” turned out to be a bluff, perfectly burning with the guns of Soviet fighters. No, this in no way forced the vampires from Washington to abandon plans to destroy our homeland! They simply began to build more powerful bombers - first the B-36, and then the stratospheric B-47 and B-52. However, all this required effort and time, during which the Soviet Union managed to develop and implement an air defense system, which no “flying fortresses” could break already. And most importantly - to create intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear charges. This changed the matter in the most fundamental way, and the overseas "rulers of the world" with great regret were forced to switch to other ways and methods of destroying our country. Plans for nuclear strikes, however, continued to be developed until the collapse of the USSR ... One way or another, the most terrible, immediate threat of attack, which would deprive all of us living now, of the slightest chance of being born, was allotted. And this was done by the Stalinist falcons in the sky of distant Korea.