About the book: 2006 / In the 70–80s of the last century, thanks to memoirs and a stunning feature film, a real cult of torpedo bomber pilots developed in the USSR, according to which this military profession during The Patriotic War was perhaps the most dangerous - there was an opinion that Soviet torpedo bombers, on average, lived for only three or four combat missions, that in fact they were “suicide bombers”, Russian kamikazes, and - most importantly! - that at the cost of these terrible losses, the torpedo bombers inflicted enormous, irreparable damage on the enemy. This book is the first attempt to understand (scrupulously and impartially, based not on emotional stories, but on documents) what was true in this cult and what was just a beautiful legend, what the combat effectiveness of Soviet torpedo aircraft actually was and the true cost of its victories.