1931 was a difficult year for the Central Committee of the Communist Party and Josef Stalin in particular. The General Secretary was fighting for his political life and he had to show he was more of a hard-liner than his opponents.
Under the slogan "Taking Back What Capitalists have Stolen", Stalin decided to use Soviet airships in a strike against Alaska.
Until this time, the Soviet airship program had proceeded apace with other leading nations, even if military uses were never mentioned in the propaganda.
However, Soviet airships had more sinister capabilities as was proven when the
Konstantin Akashev bombed Anchorage on the morning of September 10th, 1931.
Suddenly, the U.S. was jolted out of the torpor of the Great Depression to face this new menace to freedom.
U.S. forces were totally unprepared for a sneak attack from the Soviets. Fortunately, the U.S. Navy had continued development of the famous Curtiss RC-3 Schneider Cup winner.
This new, combat seaplane had just come on line in a service-test squadron which was hastily dispatched north.
Flying as the 41st Scouting squadron, the new Curtiss Alaska Defender took up patrolling off the coast just south of Anchorage.
Powered by a Wright Super-Cyclone triple row supercharged radial engine of undisclosed, top-secret horsepower, the Alaska Defender had many advanced features, including an enclosed cockpit and a drop-tank for added range. The seaplane fighter was armed with two .30 guns on the cowling and two .50s under the wings. The pilots of Scouting 41 felt confident they could best any Red foe.
Alaska had not sat idle during this crisis either. Since forces in strength would not be arriving from the continental U.S. any time soon, the indigenous Alaska Territorial Guard was formed, manned by Alaskans and supplied with surplus W.W. I gear.
With a Red invasion fleet led by the
Workers' & Peasants' Aircraft Carrier No. 17 (it was the only one in the Soviet Navy) rumored to be en route, defensive patrols were stepped up. The Curtiss Alaska Defenders flew countless sorties.
The men of the Alaska Territorial Guard were not only very patriotic, but crack shots as well. After a bombing raid on their HQ by the Soviet semi-rigid airship
Commissar Limpski, the A.T.G. started shooting at anything that flew.
This would have a huge impact on the conflict. While the Soviet invasion fleet never materialized, when the Red airships
Comrade Potemkin and
Anti-Dialectical Materialism were intercepted by Scouting 41, serious losses would be suffered on all sides by A.T.G sharpshooters. Only one Alaska Defender managed to limp home, riddled with bullets, while all other aircraft, both Soviet and U.S. were burning wreckage on the ground.
This forced both sides into negotiations, brokered by the British under League of Nations auspices on the South Pacific island of Fiji. A treaty was soon signed which restored the
status quo ante bellum.
Still, for one brief moment, a floatplane fighter was all that stood between America and the Red Menace.
Brian da Basher
