Tankograd became Tankograd because there was existing industry of type compatible with tank construction. There was also the nearby steel works. They did not evacuate the arms factories to bare plots of land and build new cities near them, for the most part.
Gorky was about 250 miles east of Moscow. The Germans managed to bomb it a number of times.
Diversion of resources into a long range bomber program (2 engine or 4 engine) is counter productive to the short fierce war the Germans need to win.
Spending large amounts of time and money in 1941 and early 42 for aircraft that will only begin to enter service in late 1942 or 1943 is not what the Germans need. Funding long term projects is hedging their bets, Total cut off is not wise but the Germans could not build a bomber force anywhere near what the British and Americans did. And Again, the British and Americans were operating over shorter distances, much shorter.
Yes, more and improved bombers would have been useful but people are calling for many more bombers and many more fighters to escort them. The Germans need to over run the western factories or get close enough to bomb them (or the railroads) before evacuation.
The Germans need more air transport than they had but is also tricky. large numbers of large transports won't save cut off German units and won't sustain panzer drives. A single Panzer division might need 200-300 tons of supplies per day. A Panzer corp with two panzer divisions and one motor rifle division could need 750 tons or more per day to continue to advance.
More light twins or 4-6 seat cabin aircraft with STOL abilities might have brought in some supplies and evacuated casualties. But might also have cut into trainer production?
This is a good post.
When in service the He 177 was rated as having a combat radius of 1500miles/2400km with 1 ton of bombs and 1200 miles/1900km with 2 tons. There were times during the German advance they were in range of the Ural factories from the more forward areas.
When Ernst Heinkel spoke to the RLM and Luftwaffe in 1939 and he begged them to remove the dive bombing requirement so that the He 177 could be built with 4 evenly distributed engines they told him they couldn't justify the cost of the program without it.
The mentality or reasoning seems to have been that
"we can't afford long range bombers because we can't sacrifice tactical dive bombers, so we can only afford the He 177 if it is a precision tactical bomber that can replace other types". Maybe there was another reasoning process, such as a dive bombing requirement against ships.
When it came to 1942 dive bombing was not necessary as Both the StuVi 5B dive bombing sight and Lotfe 7 computing sight gave almost as good accuracy as dive bombing and the He 177 entered service without dive bombing capability but with serious issues.
Below is an example of the
Rasputitsa mud. The need to tow vehicles (mainly using half tracks) or tractors of some kind increased anticipated fuel requirements for
Barbarossa by a factor of 10 over estimates.
The German army did have 6 wheel drive 3 axel trucks with large low pressure tires that might get through this but never enough. (The US supplied these to the Soviet Army in large numbers, they came out of the US timber industry).
The
Opel Blitz A 3 ton truck with 2 axels and 4 wheel drive was the only one they seemed to be able to mass produce but lacked really large tires and capacity.
Given the massive fuel demands of road transport during the
Rasputitsa an air lift might have been more fuel efficient.
German mass production of transports aircraft is not adequate to the task.
1 Ju 52, too short ranged, to slow, too fuel inefficient. Has good STOL and is durable. Better than nothing.
2 Fw 200 transport is produced in inadequate numbers (200) and being misused in any case as a maritime reconnaissance bomber.
3 The Ju 290 is also produced in inadequate number (70 or so, from 1943) and is also being misused as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. It's too late.
4 The Ju 252 has good performance but is cancelled in favour of the underpowered Ju 352 which also ends up in token production and has poor performance.
5 Arado Ar 232. Incredible STOL capability but not produced in significant numbers.
6 He 111 is used as a transport is good and is fast enough to operate in dangerous airspace but lacks volume.
7 Siebel Si 204, about 1200 were produced. They could carry 1650kg and had a range of 1100 miles but seem to have been more of a passenger transport.
8 Gotha Go 244, few produced, vulnerable to anti aircraft fire.
If the He 177 had of worked the Fw 200 and latter Ju 290 become available for transport.
With only the Ju 52 Barbarossa cant work. Without large numbers of 6 wheel drive trucks it probably can't work either.