I’ve realised I know nothing about Soviet strategic bombing during the war - did they even do this? I imagined that until late war the distances would have made it unviable to attack Germany proper and only viable reachable targets would have been their own occupied cities
The Soviet IL-4 bombers began the bombing of Berlin as early as August 7, 1941, the operation ended on September 5, 1941. 70 bombers were involved, 17 aircraft were lost.
Despite the fact that the bombing did not inflict significant military damage on Germany, it had an important psychological effect.
Until September 5, Soviet pilots made nine raids on Berlin, making a total of 86 sorties. 33 planes bombed Berlin, dropping 21 tons of bombs on it and causing 32 fires in the city. 37 aircraft could not reach the capital of Germany and struck at other cities. In total, 311 high-explosive and incendiary bombs with a total weight of 36,050 kg were spent. For various reasons, 16 aircraft were forced to interrupt the flight and return to the airfield.
After the abandonment of Tallinn and the Moonsund Archipelago, flights to Berlin had to be stopped.
On August 8, the German radio broadcast the message:
“On the night of August 7 to 8, large British air forces, in the amount of 150 aircraft, tried to bomb our capital ... Of the 15 aircraft that broke through to the city, 9 were shot down. "
In response, the BBC reported:
“The German report about the bombing of Berlin is interesting and mysterious, since on August 7-8, British aircraft did not fly over Berlin. "