Page:Joseph Davies Memorandum regarding Military Strength of the Soviet Union.djvu/7

 deficiency is partially compensated by the considerable numbers of planes actually on hand in the Red Army. Soviet Pursuit planes are very satisfactory, and the light bombers and reconnaissance planes are good, but heavy bombers are too slow and unwieldy. These defects are especially disappointing in view of the great progress made abroad in the design of bombers during the past three years.

19. Such effort has been expended on the building up of a munitions industry to support the armed forces of the Soviet Union in an emergency. These efforts have been quite successful in the creation of an airplane industry, a tank building industry, and in the great improvement in the entire metallurgical field. All activities of the munitions industry are grouped in a separate commissariat in order to achieve greater coordination and in order that first priority may in all necessary cases be secured for munitions programs.

20. The Soviet Union is fortunate in having adequate stocks or adequate resources of nearly all the basic materials necessary for munitions production. The principal exceptions are rubber, tin, and aluminum. The various manufacturing processes required for the adaptation of the metal industry for munitions have been acquired by the Soviet Union, and new factories employing -7-