Questions about B-29 operational range, VVS, VVS intercept capability if Operation Unthinkable happen. (4 Viewers)

[bf109xxl]

Probably, there would be a race for Tehran at the start of hostilities since both armies were located outside of it, the Soviets in the north, the British - in the south and southwest.

My impression was that there were not many roads from the Soviet Union to Iran and further in Iran to supply Soviet troops, their capacity was low and they were very vulnerable.

 

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

A key point in post VE day US deployments in Europe is the replacement of "high points" men with newly trained people, even if the unit remained its combat effectiveness dropped, think more an under trained police force than combat.

The US had 68 divisions in Europe after the 86th and 97th infantry arrived in February 1945, redirected from being sent to the Pacific as a result of the Ardennes attack.

June 1945 saw the 85th, 95th, 97th and 104th infantry shipped out, the 86th and 97th making it to the Pacific in September. July saw 6 infantry and 1 armoured division depart, August saw 6 infantry, 2 armoured, 1 airborne and 1 mountain division depart/disband, end September the US army in Europe was down to 35 divisions, the US was down to 77 Army and 6 Marine divisions from the peak of 95.

With the USAAF heavy bombers in Europe post VE day the story is the rapid removal of the B-24 groups. The 8th Air Force had 26 B-17 and 12 B-24 groups, the first B-24 group left in April, by end May down to 25 B-17 and 9 B-24, end June it was 19 and 5, end July it was 17 B-17, end August it was 7 B-17 where it stabilised until mid December. The aircraft were being employed as transports including in North Africa. The fighter groups started departing in October.

The 15th Air Force had 6 B-17 and 15 B-24 groups, the first 2 B-24 group departures were in April 1945. In May another 8 B-24 groups departed including 4 seconded to the ATC, by end July the force was down to 5 B-17 and 1 B-24 group, to 3 B-17 by end September. Again the fighters moved later, starting in August.

There is also the reality the number of aircraft per unit was cut post war. Similar for Bomber Command which had a nominal 23 heavy bomber squadrons by end 1945, down from 74 operational heavy bomber squadrons in April 1945

The war with Japan was well within Russian living memory in 1945, Stalin added the expansion of communism dependent on the USSR into Asia as another goal, he had permission to attack in the east until mid/late August 1945 and he would not jeopardise that, especially as he needed naval power to retake what the Japanese had taken, then more. Sometime after that would come a collision that spread into a USSR versus west war for the unthinkable scenario to become a reality.

As of January 1945, before the obvious end of the war in Europe caused aircraft order cancellations, the USAAF Very Heavy Bomber program was for 10,521 aircraft built by mid/late 1946, of which under 1,500 had been accepted, both numbers being mostly B-29. The 13 YB-35 from Northrop Hawthorne were unscheduled, there were 100 B-36 ordered from Consolidated Fort Worth with 69 expected by end 1946, the last Fort Worth B-24 was accepted in December 1944, the factory had its first B-32 accepted in September 1944 with the program due to end in June 1946 after 873 were built. While at San Diego B-24 production was scheduled to end in July 1945, B-32 in May 1946.

The first B-36A was accepted in August 1947, the second in June 1948. First acceptance of a B-45A was in April 1948, of a B-50A in October 1947.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Keep in mind, that penetration into Soviet held Eastern Europe and Russia proper would have to be at higher altitudes, as the Red Airforce was ill-equipped for high altitude operation.

Unless the bombers had a solid escort, the La-7s and Yak-9s would maul them.

That's not a change in our operations, which over Germany were 22 - 28,000 feet. It's our doctrine.

 

[EwenS]

re

FWIW the US had 25,000 - 30,000 troops in Iran from late-1943 through early-45. The core of the logistics, engineering, and railroad units, were specialized troops, but the majority of the troops were non-specialized troops drawn from infantry and motor transport units.

There is a pretty good history of the USMIM (U.S. Military Iranian Mission), IISC (Iran-Iraq Service Command), and PGSC (Persian Gulf Service Command), in the official History of the United States Army series, but I do not think it is available online. A brief description of the British involvement followed by a summary of the US involvement can be found here:

"US Army TS Transportation 3: Chapter 9: The Persian Corridor"

Note that the above description is a relative clean summary and does not cover (for the most part) the worst behavior of the Allies in Iran and Iraq.

As an interesting side note, for many years after the war and through the 1990s (at least) there was a definite attempt to keep knowledge of the history of the WWII US involvement in Iran and Iraq, as well as knowledge of the US involvement after the war, from the citizenry of the US. Presumably because those in power felt it would not play well to the US citizenry when the image the US government and US oil industry were trying to sell to the public was of a benevolent US facing dastardly and ungrateful Iranian and Iraqi regimes/peoples who could not possibly have any reason to dislike the US.

In a 2003 survey, it was found that less than 0.2% of the US adult population, and only about 1.5% of the population who were adults during WWII, were aware that the US had been involved in the invasion of Iran and Iraq during WWII.

You might be interested in this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Persian-Gulf-Command-History-Second/dp/0300221967/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.crsiQwVbjnGEjjFkpb-lJzgk4NXWS8KI4beHvCynKFXMhZcOiAqxF4r5nSN3KVJG4aM7KJtkwWqNxz8EozZ-T2XnZ8PXqRGa_cwCiggEsup6jTM1i9GdHRfAK177B3BpmXHb98eKAbQGsnmRCodnF6wftPvUXMFIZ2RDYztMysou3cw_czzQR9dKjie7CiCE3_c0rXUgkkbOWZbtrqOFNXgb-7x-8iMvVHIa7Zp5daY.x4cZGdRFeE676Kfo1TMlrneNujQuyAqUnQiQnKUGUvY&qid=1729090908&sr=8-1

Still in my "to read" pile!!!