Baltic naval aviation used DB-3s beyond torpedo attack

The DB-3 family often performed missions other than direct attacks on ships. The aircraft could carry low-altitude and high-altitude torpedoes as well as mines, yet wartime conditions often made mining, infrastructure strikes, railway attacks, and Baltic supply interdiction more useful. Fifteen Baltic Fleet DB-3Fs carried out the first Soviet raid on Berlin without losses. That small formation contrasts with much larger contemporary British raids and shows why the Soviet Union still lacked enough bombers for all the missions it wanted performed.