4 weeks, 7 whifs #3 & #4: Stalin's Fords

[comrade harps]

Ford Aircraft Company of TransCaucasia-built Messerschmitt Bf 108F
Black 7985, Trud s eskadroy Yedinstva (Labour with Unity Squadron), Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force
Krasnodar, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT)-occupied Socialist Union, October 1941




In 1932 the American industrialist Henry Ford opened a Ford automobile factory at Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT). The nation's leader, Stalin, had invited Ford to the country in order to boost productivity through the establishment of modern assembly line management practices. Although mostly associated with automobiles (cars and trucks), Ford's portfolio also included the Stout Metal Airplane Division of the Ford Motor Company, which in 1932 was winding down the production of its Trimotor transport in the face of dwindling orders. Realising the potential of the SSRT both as a market and as a location of cheap and obedient labour, Ford closed the Stout Division's unprofitable production line in Detroit and relocated it to the SSRT as the Ford Tbilisi Airplane Division. More Trimotors followed, as did a series of original Ford and foreign designs built under licence. These included trainers, transports (modernised Trimotors) and tourers, sports planes and the Ford Vikhr' (Whirlwind) twin-engined fighter-bomber.





One of the designs licence-built by the Ford Tbilisi Airplane Division was the Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun touring monoplane. Messerschmitt and the RLM gave the out of order designation of Bf 108F to these in recognition of Henry Ford, who had been bestowed with the Grand Cross of the German Eagle by the Nazis. The first Ford Tbilisi Bf 108F flew in 1940 and 263 were built for domestic and export civilian and military customer before production ended in December 1943. Export customers included the Turkish Air Force (28 acquired in-lieu of deliveries from Messerschmitt during 1942), the Imperial Iranian Air Force (12) and the Afghan Air Force (6).  Others were sold to civilian operators, including the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (2). Of interest is that 7 of the Imperial Iranian Air Force and both Anglo-Iranian Oil Company aircraft were impressed into RAF service as the Messerschmitt Aldon following the 1941 British invasion of Iran.




The Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force was the largest operator of the Bf 108F, using it for liaison and training duties. Many expeditionary fighter and bomber squadrons were issued with at least one Bf 108F as a unit hack and several were used by senior Soviet Army officers as personal transports.




Several historians have claimed that Henry Ford's interests in the SSRT were reflected in American and British responses to Stalin's 24 June 1941 invasion of the Socialist Union. He publically and privately lobbied for a lenient response to the SSRT. Although both Allied nations gave immense logistical support to the Moscow Pact war effort against the Axis, neither declared war against the SSRT but did enforce economic blockades. In this context, Ford reluctantly distanced himself and his company from Ford Tbilisi and publicly reduced his interest in the joint-venture company by selling his shareholding to the Soviet state. Ford was also forced to withdraw most of his expatriate workers from the SSRT, which significantly stymied further development of the company's local products. When Britain invaded Iran in August 1941 to open up an overland route for Lend-Lease deliveries, they made no move against the SSRT: the British Army simply stopped at the Iran-SSRT frontier, closed the border crossings and imposed a blockade. It later emerged that Britain was still purchasing petroleum products from the SSRT via Turkey. For its part, Turkey had promised to take direct action against any country that invaded the SSRT. This position fell apart when Turkey declared war on Germany and its Axis partners on 19 August 1944, just three days before Germany signed the Separate Peace (aka The Great Betrayal) with the Western Allies. Seizing the moment, the Red Army steamrolled the Soviet Army and in less than two months had liberated all of the SSRT from Stalin's grip. The Turks remained silent and it was up to the British Army to open the border crossings for refugees.

[comrade harps]

Ford Aircraft Company of TransCaucasia Vikhr R
"For Ivan Babak", Для советских героев эскадрилья (For Soviet Heroes Squadron)
Personal mount of Captain Giorgi Kvilitaia, 17 July 1942, Elista, Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT)-occupied Socialist Union



When Stalin's Soviet Army of the Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia (SSRT) attacked the Socialist Union (SU) in June 1941, they did so on the understanding that they would meet-up with Hitler's Axis forces along the Don river, upon an agreed boundary that ran between Rostov and Volgograd. Rostov was to be jointly administered, but Volgograd's was to go to Stalin as it had temporarily been the Soviet state's capital and called Stalingrad. The plan was for the forces of Hitler and Stalin to occupy both of these cities by the end of 1941. However, despite enormous losses and retreats, Trotsky's Red Army thwarted those plans. The German Army Group South reached Rostov ahead of the Soviet Army and briefly occupied the city in November before a Red Army counter-attacked forced its withdrawal. The Soviet Army, meanwhile, had been held to positions the south of the city.



In June 1942 the invading forces renewed their offensive operations in the region. The Soviet Army reached Rostov first, occupied it and held firm. Beaten to Rostov, but with the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea secured and with a solid land route through which Soviet oil could flow to the Axis, Hitler was determined to beat Stalin to Volgograd, destroy it and leave his rival with a city of rubble and ashes. Grandiose statements were issued from Berlin about the significance of the coming battle and Hitler willfully renamed the city Stalingrad before his forces reached it.



Despite the loss of Rostov and the Axis-Soviet link-up, the Red Army's resistance in the region slowed the enemy advance through a series of rear-guard actions and manoeuvring counter-attacks. Deeply distrustful of each other, the Axis and Soviet armies were uncoordinated and offered little help to each other in planning their actions and offering battlefield support. The German Sixth Army entered Stalingrad in September, while the Fourth Panzer Army secured the southern flank from further northward advances by the Soviet Army. This suited Trotsky's "Germany first" policy.



The Soviet TransCaucasian Army Air Force (STAAF) was active throughout the region during the advances of 1942. Not just in contact with the Reds, but sharing airspace with the Luftwaffe and its Axis allies, Soviet aircraft came to feature prominent yellow identification markings similar to those used by Axis airpower on the Eastern Front. Yellow paint was applied under wingtips and in a band that ringed the rear fuselage and liberally to fuselage noses and propeller spinners.



The Ford Vhikrs Rs of the For Soviet Heroes Squadron operated from frontline airfields for the duration of the 1942 battles in the region. An elite unit of highly credentialed personnel (and made up exclusively of Soviet Party members), the For Soviet Heroes Squadron had a well-earned reputation for swashbuckling daring-do and saw themselves "aviator commandoes." Flying Ford Vikhrs, they performed fighter and fighter-bomber duties, excelling at aerial interdiction and only occasionally attacking German instead of Red Army troops. By June 1942 you had to be an ace with five confirmed aerial victories to be selected for the unit.



Captain Giorgi Kvilitaia was invited into the unit in July 1942. Kvilitaia had 10 confirmed air-to-air victories achieved whilst flying TASA Product 17s with the Proletarian Peace Vanguard Eskadrille and was issued with his personal Vikhr on 14 July. The inscription on this plane read "For Ivan Babak". Captain Ivan Bakak was a Hero of the Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia, a pilot who had achieved 21 air-to-air kills during the Second Russian Civil War before his death in a fiery crash while defending the (temporary) Soviet capital of Stalingrad (Volgograd). Each aircraft in the For Soviet Heroes Squadron featured a prominent transcription dedicated to a different Hero of the Soviet Socialist Republics of TransCaucasia. These named dedications were used instead of the STAAF's usual 3 or 4 digit side number.



The Ford Vikhr (Whirlwind) originated from a 1936 STAAF request for a high-speed but heavily-armed fighter. Designed by a team at the Ford Aircraft Company of TransCaucasia's offices in Tbilisi, the Vikhr was chosen for full development against a rival proposal by TASA. Powered by two Ford GAA V12 engines, the Vikr was armed with four nose-mounted 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 cannon. It first flew in 1938 and entered production in 1940, initially as a pure fighter but developed into the Vikr B (fighter-bomber), Vikhr R (fighter-bomber with rockets) and Vikhr F (photo reconnaissance) versions. Further developments were worked on, including versions with the more powerful Ford GAA_GTO engine and locally built developments of the Hispano-Suiza 12Z, but due to the loss of Ford's expatriate design workforce following the invasion of the Socialist Union, these failed to progress into production. Prisoners just didn't have the same kind of flair for timely and quality work.



With good performance, excellent pilot vision and heavy armnament, the Vikhr performed well and remained in production until March 1944, when the emphasis was placed on the cheaper and easier to build single-engined TASA Product 17 fighter-bomber. Although the Ford Aircraft Company of TransCaucasia was 49% owned by the American Ford company, they were not permitted to offer any derivatives of the Vikhr to US or other operators. In late December 1941, Henry Ford was shamed into selling his stock in the company to the Soviet state. At the time Ford denied using Soviet prison workers, but documentary evidence suggests that auto and aviation component production was regularly sub-contracted to Soviet prison enterprises from 1937 onwards.



This model is based on a series of propaganda photos taken to record Captain Kvilitaia's first combat mission on 17 July. The plane is armed with four R.60 rockets, which carried a 60kg high explosive warhead in its centre section and a fragmentation/incendiary nose cone filled with steal flechettes and white phosphorous. The detailed unit log records that Kvilitaia and five colleagues performed an armed reconnaissance mission in the morning (engaging a Red Army armoured column south of Kotelnikovo) and also joined an eight-plane bomber escort mission in the afternoon to Sharnut (performing fighter escort and flak suppression). No enemy fighters were encountered during either of these operations.

[TheChronicOne]

Very nice! Hell of a back-story, as well. Fascinating considering the past-contemporary-history.  (yeah, those three words together... I know..      ) 

[comrade harps]

Very nice! Hell of a back-story, as well. Fascinating considering the past-contemporary-history.  (yeah, those three words together... I know..      ) 

Thanks. I do like to do a bit of research with my backstories and weave fiction with fact. GAZ started assembling Fords in Stalin's USSR in 1932 and I took it from there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAZ

[TheChronicOne]

Fascinating stuff, I didn't know anything about GAZ & Ford. Thank you! 

Tremendous work, man... all around!

[PR19_Kit]

My brain is totally addled after reading the back story, so much so I had to go back and look at the models again!

Terrific work, on all levels. 

[zenrat]

Any colour you like as long as it's camo...
Good jobs Comrade.   

Fascinating stuff, I didn't know anything about GAZ & Ford. Thank you! 

Tremendous work, man... all around!

The Gaz trucks used by the Red Army in WW2 are basically Model A Ford trucks.

[comrade harps]

My brain is totally addled after reading the back story, so much so I had to go back and look at the models again!

Terrific work, on all levels. 

I like messing with people's brains. 

[zenrat]

My brain is totally addled after reading the back story, so much so I had to go back and look at the models again!

Terrific work, on all levels. 

I like messing with people's brains. 

He does you know.  He roams the library swapping the last pages of the murder mysteries...

[NARSES2]

Love the idea behind the backstory 

Whirlwind in particular looks good 

[comrade harps]

My brain is totally addled after reading the back story, so much so I had to go back and look at the models again!

Terrific work, on all levels. 

I like messing with people's brains. 

He does you know.  He roams the library swapping the last pages of the murder mysteries...

That and changing the covers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/flsilovefra/albums/72157708801289792

[zenrat]

My brain is totally addled after reading the back story, so much so I had to go back and look at the models again!

Terrific work, on all levels. 

I like messing with people's brains. 

He does you know.  He roams the library swapping the last pages of the murder mysteries...

That and changing the covers: https://www.flickr.com/photos/flsilovefra/albums/72157708801289792