The bombing of Gorky by the German Luftwaffe was the most destructive attack on Soviet war production on the Eastern Front of World War II. It lasted intermittently from October 1941 to June 1943, with 43 raids carried out.
The main target was the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ), which was manufacturing T-60 light infantry tanks. Defences proved inadequate, though a full-size dummy model of the main factory, and a 'false village' of painted images on the ground, caused some confusion to enemy pilots. The whole plant was eventually destroyed, and an inquiry immediately demanded by Stalin. The plant was reconstructed in four months.
Gorky is the name of Nizhny Novgorod in 1932–1990, a city located deep in European Russia.
Background The destruction of Gorky's industry was in Operation Barbarossa from the very beginning. It was one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of weapons for the Red Army. Germany planned to capture and occupy the city during the second half of September 1941.Горьковчане в годы Великой Отечественной войны The city was the main center of the entire Volga region and in it was concentrated the main industry and state power over the regions. Occupation of Gorky meant for Germany complete control over the Volga region. First, the Germans were to destroy the defense industry of the city - Gorky Automobile Plant, Aviation Plant Nr. 21 "Ordzhonikidze", Krasnoe Sormovo Factory Nr. 112, and the Dvigatel Revolyutsii Diesel Engine Plant. After the occupation of the city, the General District of Gorky () or the General District of Nizhny Novgorod () was to be created, included in the Reichcommissariat Moskowien. Gorky Machine-building Plant (All-Union Machine-building Plant Novoje Sormovo, Joseph Stalin Factory Nr. 92, Zavod imeni Stalina, or ZiS) was planned to be converted to the production of German military equipment.
On 31 October 1941, Joseph Stalin ordered GAZ to increase the production of T-60 tanks.
The leadership of the city knew that Gorky could be attacked at any moment by German aviation. It was necessary to strengthen the city's air defense and mask factories. But the necessary measures were not completed.
Nikolay Markov, commander of the Gorky Brigade Air Defense District, was appointed in October 1941. Arriving in Gorky, he noticed that the defense of the city was not strong enough. There were only about 50 antiaircraft guns and very few searchlights.
Attacks
November 1941
Reconnaissance flights over Gorky began in the autumn of 1941. German planes flew at high altitude, braking over GAZ. The first scout plane, a Junkers Ju 88, appeared in the sky above the city on Thursday, 9 October. At first the Luftwaffe bombed the suburbs. The main blow fell on elevators and warehouses near Dzerzhinsk. This was followed by two large raids on Gorky. Heinkel He 111 aircraft of the Kampfgruppe 100 were involved.
The first raid, on the night of 4/5 November, began at 4:30 pm. According to air defense estimates, about 150 aircraft participated; 11 aircraft flew to the city. The planes approached individually and in groups of 3 to 16 at intervals of 15–20 minutes. The bombing lasted all night. In addition to bombs, leaflets were also dropped. GAZ, Nitel, and the Dvigatel Revolyutsii factory were struck, and 55 people died, 141 wounded. According to German data, 15 planes participated in this raid. The first aircraft appeared over the city while the sky was still light and dropped bombs. Then, using machine guns, they strafed people running in the street. A direct hit in the main building of the Nitel, killed the director and some other executives. During the night bombing, the main impact occurred on secondary objects – residential urban areas and the field in the Stakhanovsky village. The incendiary and high-explosive bombs weighing from 70 to 250 kg and heavy BM-1000 parachute mines weighing 871 kg were dropped.
The second raid took place on the night of 5/6 November. An air alert was announced. At 11:34 pm, the power lines from the Balakhna power plant to the city were damaged by a bomb strike. Some of the industrial regions temporarily lost power. At 01:47 am, the raid on Gorky began. The main impacts were on GAZ, Krasnoe Sormovo, Aviation Plant Nr. 21 "Ordzhonikidze", and residential buildings. The antiaircraft batteries were in operation, so bombing was less precise. According to air defense data, 14 aircraft flew over the city. In the GAZ area, 5 people died and 21 were wounded.
In the two raids, the main office of GAZ, a garage, a smithy, a stamping building, a professional technical factory, an archive, experimental workshops, a repair and mechanical workshop, mechanical workshop No. 2, power plant No. 2, a wheel workshop, a motor workshop No. 2, a foundry workshop of gray cast iron, a press workshop, and residential areas of the district were heavily damaged. The administration building of the Dvigatel Revolyutsii Diesel Plant was destroyed.
In several places there was panic (in addition to the raids, the Wehrmacht was already near Moscow). Part of the population began to leave the urban areas. Some plants stopped production, but the production of T-60 tanks by GAZ was still growing rapidly. The paucity of antiaircraft guns allowed German aircraft to sight and bomb from low altitude. A total of 127 people died, 176 were injured severely, and 195 were wounded (data vary in different sources). A large number of the deceased were refugees from Moscow, resettled in the Avtozavodsky City District. No German aircraft were shot down.
On Saturday, 8 November 1941, the Gorky Brigade Air Defense District was reinforced by the 58th and 281st separate anti-aircraft artillery divisions, the 142nd Fighter Aviation Division and the 45th anti-aircraft search belt.
From Wednesday, 12 November to Tuesday, 18 November 1941, the Germans launched a series of raids by single-seat aircraft with the main purpose of destroying the Kanavinsky Bridge, but missed.
Bombing of 1942 On the night of 3/4 February 1942, a single aircraft, shutting down its engines and, flying from a great height, broke through the air defense shield and dropped three bombs on GAZ. Wheel and engine workshops were damaged. 17 workers died, 41 were wounded. In this raid, for the first time, German agent spotters who had infiltrated into Gorky were seen. They carried out target designation, launching red and white signal flares from the ground.
On the nights of 4/5, 7/8, and 23/24 February, three attempts were made to attack Gorky. According to air defense, in the first raid of twelve aircraft in the city, only one got through, dropping five bombs on GAZ and Stakhanovsky village; in the second and third raids no planes got through. According to German data, on the night of 5/6 February, a single airplane raided.
In total, as a result of the bombing of February 1942, 20 people died and 48 people were injured. Damage inflicted to industrial facilities was insignificant.
At the end of May, five reconnaissance flights were carried out over the city.
On 30 May and 10 June, two unsuccessful bombing raids on Gorky, Bor and Dzerzhinsk were undertaken. According to air defense estimates, approximately 20 aircraft took part. For the defense of the most important objects, barrage balloons and the anti-aircraft guns of gunboats of the Volga Military Flotilla were first used. According to German data, the raids were committed on the night of 30 May.
30-31, from Sunday, 31 May to Monday, 1 June and 10 June (single aircraft). The bombing was carried out from a great height, about 50 bombs fell on the residential sector and repair base No. 97, where the tanks were assembled, which were done by Lend-Lease.
The single reconnaissance planes Junkers Ju 88 and Dornier Do 215 flew over the city from 1 to 5 June at different heights. On 23 June, Ju 88s from a great height, bombed the Aviation Plant Nr. 21 "Ordzhonikidze", but the bombs fell into the Sormovskiy Park.
On the night of Wednesday, 24 June to Thursday, 25 June, a group of aircraft dropped bombs on the outskirts of Gorky, in the vicinity of Strigino village. Another plane dropped two 500 kg bombs at the Aviation Plant Nr. 21, one of which did not explode.
On Monday, 27 July, the deputy squadron commander of the 722nd Fighter Aviation Regiment, Pyotr Shavurin, on MiG-3 intercepted the reconnaissance aircraft Ju 88D and knocked him down with a ramming blow. The planes fell in the vicinity of the villages of Kozlovka-Sannica-Tumbotino. The ramming blow was explained by the fact that the weak armament of the MiG-3 did not allow to effectively combat bombers. However, at that time, it was the only model of a high-altitude fighter in the arsenal of air defense. The wreckage of the German aircraft was collected and exhibited for viewing on the Soviet Square.
On the night of Thursday, 5 November to Friday, 6 November, a group of German planes made an unsuccessful attempt to bomb the Neftegaz refinery. At GAZ, 9 high-explosive and several incendiary bombs were dropped. As a result of the raid, the boiler room was badly damaged, 4 workers died, the plant did not work at all for 3 days, and then it did not work at full capacity for 3 weeks. Most of the incendiary bombs fell on the Gorky Machine-building Plant, several bombs exploded not far from the Moskovsky Railway Station. In this raid, German aviation first used light bombs.
June 1943
In June 1943, after a prolonged calm, Gorky underwent a series of massive night attacks by German aviation. The main goal was again GAZ. The raids were carried out in preparation for a major offensive, Operation Citadel (summer-autumn 1943), during which German bombers struck the industrial centers of the Volga region - Gorky, Yaroslavl, and Saratov. It was one of the largest Luftwaffe attacks on the Soviet Union's rear during the entire war.
German aviation Two-engine bombers of the squadrons KG 27 and KG 55 participated in the raids, which rose from the airfields near Orel and Bryansk and, bypassing the Moscow air defense zone, they flew up to Gorky from Dzerzhinsk, Bogorodsk and Arzamas. To use the darkest time of the day, bombardments were conducted from 12 am to 2 am. At first the target was designated as light missiles and air defense was blocked, then bombed from different heights and directions. Tactics changed every time. High-explosive, fragmentation and incendiary bombs of various calibers (up to 2,000 kg) and incendiary liquids were dropped into the city. The results of each raid recorded by reconnaissance aircraft flying over the city at an altitude of 7 km, at 5 pm the next day.
In the first raid on the night of 4–5 June, in order to cover up, the preparation of the Luftwaffe raid, an attack on Moscow was launched. According to air defense data, approximately 45 He 111, Ju 88 and Focke-Wulf Fw 200 took part in it. The planes flew from the directions Vladimir-Kovrov-Gorky and Kulebaki-Arzamas-Gorky. The bombing began at 12:45 am, about 20 planes broke through to the city. A total of 289 bombs were dropped, 260 of which were dropped on GAZ, the main conveyor, a spring workshop, and a smithy No. 3 were put out of operation. Several houses and a hospital were destroyed. In Avtozavodsky City District and at the plant, 70 people died and 210 were wounded. Attempts to break into the northern part of the city to the plants Krasnoe Sormovo, Aviation Plant Nr. 21 "Ordzhonikidze", and Gorky machine-building plant failed. 5 German aircraft were lost. According to German data, 168 He 111 and Ju 88 aircraft participated in the raid, of which 149 aircraft attacked Gorky.