Anti-Aircraft Defense

ANTI-AIRCRAFT DEFENSE (AAD), a complex system of measures for protection against attacks by enemy air forces in wartime. AAD of troops has the purpose of ensuring the execution of combat operations against attacks and reconnaissance by the enemy from the air. AAD in the rear has the goal of hindering the actions of enemy air forces and reducing the damage inflicted by them. The means of AAD are: active—fighter aviation, anti-aircraft artillery, and machine guns; active means are assisted by anti-aircraft searchlights with sound locators; local—camouflage, fortification protection, anti-chemical protection, aerial barriers, and dispersed arrangement of protected objects. AAD appeared in the era of the World War of 1914–18, when the air fleets of the adversaries, which had strengthened quantitatively and grown qualitatively (Figure 1), placed under the threat of air attack not only the rear of the military zone but the entire territory of the countries of Western Europe. In the World War, a number of capitals of the warring states were subjected to air attack (Paris, London, and others—Figure 2). After the World War, military air fleets continued to develop intensively. If in 5 large capitalist states (France, England, the USA, Italy, and Japan) in 1914 there were 263 aircraft in service, then in 1923 the number

Figure 1. Growth in the number of combat aircraft in the armies of the warring states during the war of 1914–18.

increased to 3,350, and the qualitative indicators of aircraft are also changing (see the table on p. 431). In recent years, the tendency of imperialist states to create powerful and numerous bomber aviation with a large radius of action has become quite distinct. A system of views is being developed and gaining distribution regarding the decisive importance for the outcome of the war of large-scale operations of the air fleet directed against the vital centers of the enemy state. Of no small importance in this matter is the tendency of capitalist countries to provide themselves in a modern class war with a type of armed forces in which, according to their ideas, it is easier to ensure political stability in the event of an attack on the Soviet Union—the country of socialism under construction. The technical achievements of aviation are now (1933) such that the entire territory of warring states at a distance of 600–800 km from the border will be under the constant threat of bombing and air-chemical^g raids, as well as landings from the air. As was the case in the World War of 1914–18, giant dirigibles will also be used for military purposes, which are capable of transporting tens of tons of explosives, troops, and combat supplies over thousands of kilometers. At the same time, modern dirigibles can be flying bases for aircraft, which will significantly expand their radius of action. The growth of the military danger of a direct air attack on the deep rear, especially in view of the possibility of the use of poisonous substances by combat aircraft, has in recent years increasingly attracted the attention of government bodies of all countries. After the articles of the Italian Gen. Douhet, a Ministry of Anti-Aircraft Defense was created in France. But the complete coverage of the entire civilian population with AAD protection in imperialist states is recognized as a completely impossible task. The attempt to resolve the issue through international agreements and treaties proved hypocritical and only further emphasized the contradictory interests of the capitalist world. The commission of military experts on the protection of the civilian population from chemical danger, created under the International Committee of the Red Cross, was dissolved after two sessions (in Rome and Brussels). This commission came to the conclusion that 1) air-chemical danger threatens the entire territory of the states of Western Europe, that 2) one must think about the protection of populated areas during the period of their construction, planning, and reconstruction, that 3) it is impossible to protect the entire population with available means and it must be divided into active (contingents serving transport, communication organs, vitally necessary installations—water supply, power plants; those ensuring public order and fighting natural disasters: police, firefighters, members of public organizations like Red Cross societies and some others), which is provided for first, and passive, which is essentially almost not provided for at all, that 4) it is necessary to announce a number of competitions for discoveries and inventions of means and methods for detecting chemical warfare agents in the air, individual and group protection

Places of bomb impacts. Metropolitan. Railways. Main streets and roads. Canals.

_c Green spaces

Figure 2. Places of impact of bombs dropped over London during the war of 1914–18. Thus, in the environment of air-chemical danger, the greater part of the population turns out to be left to its own devices, and the resolution of the question of its protection and the organization of assistance to it, in particular medical, has to be sought in the mobilization of public forces and resources. To this end, in almost all states, societies (leagues, commissions) have been created, some of which work under the flag of the Red Cross, to prepare the population for the deployment of self-activity in an environment of air-chemical danger. [Table: Indicators | 1914 | 1918 | 1923 | 1930 | 1932. Speed of scout (km/h) | - | - | 150 | - | 215. Flight range of heavy bomber (km) | - | - | 1,000 | 2,000 | -. Weight of heavy bomber bomb | - | - | - | 7,500 | 10,000.] In our country, in the USSR, the functions of operational leadership of AAD belong to the organs of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, while the implementation of measures of local importance is entrusted to civil departments, under whose jurisdiction are the so-called 'AAD objects.'

Figure 3. Exemplary scheme of the organization of an aviation-chemical detachment.

Under socialist planning of the national economy, AAD in the USSR does not know a whole series of obstacles in its organization that exist in capitalist countries. The mobilization of the Soviet public, the preparation of the population, and active assistance to the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and civil departments in the matter of AAD lie with the Societies for Assistance to Defense (Osoaviakhim) and the development of the aviation and chemical industry. Medical-sanitary provision of the population during AAD has been taken on by the republican societies of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, which coordinate their work with Osoaviakhim, which deals with questions of observation, communication, reconnaissance, decontamination, firefighting, and maintaining public order in relation to assisting the organization of AAD. Medical-sanitary teams, prepared and materially provided for by the Red Cross and its local organs, are included as one of the teams in the aviation-chemical detachments (Figure 3) formed by Osoaviakhim. The preparation of the population for the matter of rendering medical aid during air casualties is carried out in first-aid circles. Persons who have finished such circles, who are not obligated to military service and who satisfy the requirements of physical health, are enrolled in sanitary squads; the latter in large centers (Moscow, Leningrad) are combined into sanitary corps. Sanitary squads are periodically gathered for training according to an annual program. The adaptation of medical institutions, shower installations, sanitary inspection points, laboratories, and disinfection stations to the needs of AAD lies with civil health organs. They are also obliged to take care of accumulating cadres of doctors familiar with the organization of AAD, with the toxicology of chemical warfare agents, as well as the clinic and therapy of casualties from these substances.