VVS bombers accuracy in WWII

[Dimlee]

Russian military historian Mark Solonin has published recently three videos under the general topic "aircraft vs tank".
Pretty good work and highly recommended to anyone who can read(listen) Russian.

In the third video, the author displayed one interesting table: bombing accuracy of VVS medium bombers in 1941, 1943, 1945.
(watch from 02:53)

Link to the original table in Russian:

Ãëàâà ñåäüìàÿ. Ðàáîòà ñëóæá ïî îáåñïå÷åíèþ áîåâûõ äåéñòâèé Âîåííî-âîçäóøíûõ ñèë Êðàñíîé Àðìèè

My translation:

Note: the value in the bottom line should be given better English translation, I just don't remember it. Basically, it means that any bomb falls somewhere in the circle with a given radius in metres: 140, 100, 80, 96, 66, 46.

P.S. The table first appeared in the "Bible" of VVS history called "Sovetskaya aviatsiya v Velikoy Otechestvennoy voine v tsifrakh" (Soviet aviation in the Great Patriotic War, in figures). It was published in the early 1960s as a classified document and as far as I know, has never been issued again. There are just scanned/OCRed copies on the Internet.

 

[SaparotRob]

Great videos. Why are they speaking in Klingon?

 

[Snautzer01]

Did the aiming devices of the bombers change? Or other training and strategie ? Or less aaa earlier?

 

[pbehn]

Great videos. Why are they speaking in Klingon?

One of the four people on the planet who doesnt speak English made a video.

 

[Dimlee]

Did the aiming devices of the bombers change? Or other training and strategie ? Or less aaa earlier?

There is no explanation of the table, but I'm sure that the results were from the test ranges. So, better bombsights, better training and, probably, improvements in later Pe-2 modifications.

 

[elbmc1969]

Last line is similar to Circular Error Probable. ("Circle of Equal Probability" is a much more sensible term with the same abbreviation.)

CEP was not in common use during WWII, so it may have been calculated postwar from tabulated results.

 

[elbmc1969]

Did the aiming devices of the bombers change? Or other training and strategie ? Or less aaa earlier?

Well, yes, the table says that the bombsights changed.

I suspect that these were test range results, so AAA wouldn't be a factor.

Note that "dive bombing" in an SB is nothing near as steep as in a Pe-2.

 

[tomo pauk]

P.S. The table first appeared in the "Bible" of VVS history called "Sovetskaya aviatsiya v Velikoy Otechestvennoy voine v tsifrakh" (Soviet aviation in the Great Patriotic War, in figures). It was published in the early 1960s as a classified document and as far as I know, has never been issued again. There are just scanned/OCRed copies on the Internet.

My google-fu is weak today. Care to post some link to the 'bible'?

edit: download site ; click the "DOC(RAR)" button

 

[Dimlee]

Tomo, your link is correct.