Russian warplanes used practice bombs with “To Berlin!” and “For Stalin” slogans during Baltic drills

August 14, 2015 Russia, Troubled Areas
David Cenciotti

Transport planes of the Russian Baltic Fleet used practice bombs signed “To Berlin!” and “For Stalin!” during recent drills in the Baltic Region.

At the beginning of August, the Russian Navy Baltic Fleet held an exercise at Chernyakhovsk airbase, in Kaliningrad Oblast.

Attended by aircrews from the Baltic, North, Black Sea and Pacific fleets, the drills saw live firing activity conducted by Su-24 and An-26 and Mi-24 and Ka-27: noteworthy, it was the first time the An-26 transport plane practiced in the bomber role in 20 years.

AN-26

As sometimes happens among Western air forces during real ops as well as live firing events, bombs used by the Russian planes during the exercise sported various inscriptions: interestingly, the images allegedly taken by the Russian Navy and posted on the naval news website Flot show two P-50SH bombs with the slogans “To Berlin!” and “For Stalin” similar to those used during WWII by the Soviet Red Army in its fight against Nazi Germany.

P-50SH bomb

“Neither while being stored in warehouses, nor, moreover, during any training or otherwise exercises had any inscriptions whatsoever been put on any ammunition,” said a Russian MoD source who talked to Sputnik News.

However, at least in Germany, such slogans have been taken seriously: Bild tabloid said the text on bombs show dangerous tendencies in the Russian leadership and army and that may be considered as a “bitter insight into of the Russian reality of 2015.”

AN-26 bomb

Image credit: Flot

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

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11 Comments

  1. Oh oh. Sounds like some service men thought to be funny. Not sure how much attention should be given to this – probably depends on how serioius they were and whether the officers would agree with the message.

  2. Bomb graffiti is much cooler when it features Kilroy. That being said, seems innocuous, our boys write all manner of things on the bombs.

    • Kilroy is an American …. Then again NATO aircraft now operate from former Soviet airfields all over Europe and within former Soviet territory …. who knows what tomorrow will bring.

  4. The real news is the Russian Forces making their An-26s train with unguided bombs in the Baltic region as bombers. I understand using them in Sudan by Sudanese Air Force, but this one is just wrong.

    • My thoughts exactly….if I didn’t have the resources to operate REAL bombers, I sure as hell wouldn’t be telling the rest of the world. On the plus side, its good to see the sanctions are having some effect…

        • Russia is pretty close to being broke right now through sanctions and internal corruption. They are actually even having trouble producing fuel for their own nation. So, combine all of those, and you have a forced reliance on vintage legacy equipment for training purposes.

          • It doesn’t look close to being broke. Russia is using its own armaments. Sanctions are not stopping that happening.

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