A planned operational section was dropped because the available sources did not support a confident assessment of specific wartime missions. The record still contains impressive claims, including one aviator credited with 886 combat sorties and the award of Hero of the Soviet Union. DB-3s and Il-4s plainly served in important formations and carried out many duties. Aggregate service and honours, however, do not reconstruct exactly what happened on individual operations.
Chapter · 34:37-35:42
Operational scale is clearer than individual mission history
Large sortie totals and important service roles survive in the record, but the available sources do not support a confident mission-by-mission account.