Defences proved inadequate, though a full-size dummy model of the main factory, and a ‘false village’ of painted images on the ground, caused some confusion to enemy pilots.

During the night bombing, the main impact occurred on secondary objects – residential urban areas and the field in the Stakhanovsky village.

At 01:47 the raid on Gorky began, the main impacts were on GAZ, Krasnoe Sormovo, Aviation Plant Nr.

From Wednesday, November 12 to Tuesday, 18, 1941, the Germans launched a series of raids by single-seat aircraft with the main purpose of destroying the Kanavinsky Bridge, but missed.

On the night of 3/4 February 1942, a single aircraft, shutting down its engines and, flying from a great height, broke through the air defense shield and dropped three bombs on GAZ.

For the defense of the most important objects, barrage balloons and the anti-aircraft guns of gunboats of the Volga Military Flotilla were first used.

On the night of Wednesday, June 24 to Thursday, 25, a group of aircraft dropped bombs on the outskirts of Gorky, in the vicinity of Strigino village.

On Monday, July 27, the deputy squadron commander of the 722nd Fighter Aviation Regiment, Pyotr Shavurin, on MiG-3 intercepted the reconnaissance aircraft Ju 88D and knocked him down with a ramming blow.

On the night of Thursday, November 5 to Friday, 6, a group of German planes made an unsuccessful attempt to bomb the Neftegaz refinery.

In June 1943, after a prolonged calm, Gorky underwent a series of massive night attacks by German aviation.

The raids were carried out in preparation for a major offensive Citadel operation (summer-autumn 1943), during which German bombers struck the industrial centers of the Volga region - Gorky, Yaroslavl and Saratov.

The results of each raid recorded by reconnaissance aircraft flying over the city at an altitude of 7 km, at 5 pm the next day.

9 high-explosive and 7 incendiary bombs were dropped, the cast iron smelting foundry and the residential area suffered, according to air defense data.

The fire from heavy anti-aircraft guns met the aircraft on approach to the city, bombs were dropped from altitudes of 4000–5500 meters and wore more chaotic character.

GAZ, thermal power station, water intake, harbor, residential quarters in Leninsky and Voroshilovsky City Districts, as well as villages: Lyakhovo, Monastyrka, Shcherbinka and Myza airfield were attacked.

The Kommodore of the KG 27 Oberstleutnant Hans-Henning Freiherr von Beust personally supervised the actions of German pilots.

The bombing of the largest industrial center of the country caused an immediate reaction of the supreme power of the Soviet Union.

To investigate the reasons for the failure to fulfill the tasks, a commission was appointed, consisting of the head of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria, the chief of the NKGB Vsevolod Merkulov, the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Alexander Shcherbakov, the chairman of the Moscow Soviet Vasily Pronin and the commander of the air defense of the country Mikhail Gromadin.

After the commission's investigation, the commander of the air defense of the region, Major General Alexei Alexandrovich Osipov was demoted and GAZ director Alexander Lifshits was removed from his post.

Immediately after the first raid, the design archive of the plant was evacuated, gasoline was removed from the territory and dismantling of camouflage shields that caused fires began.

I got up across the road and raised my hand, but the driver walked round to my right and continued to leave at an increased speed toward the city.

After a sharp conversation with them, I got into the car and by dawn I drove to Kanavino, where at that time the City Executive Committee was located.First, Colonel Slyusarev ordered the creation of day and night patrols of Gorky.

In December, the organizing committee decided to create several large bomb shelters in the Upper City.

The prolonged absence of bombardments and the successful offensive of the Red Army contributed to a weakening of vigilance, there were many shortcomings in the organization of defense.

Avtozavodsky City District defended the 784th anti-aircraft artillery regiment, which consisted mainly of girls who had recently joined the army.

Detachments of gun-pointing stations were also unprepared and antiaircraft artillery fired without precise target designation, interaction with searchlights was not worked out.

Air defense command posts in the cellars of the buildings went out of order when they were destroyed, wire telephone communications were often interrupted by bomb explosions.

In addition to the city's anti-aircraft defense, the government of the Soviet Union decided to build a number of "false objects" in Gorky.

To create on the approaches to Gorky a number of false objects imitating the real defense facilities of the city.

Chairman of the Gorky Defense Committee M. RodionovAs a result of this decision, a huge model of GAZ was built in the village of Mordvintsevo, near Fedyakovo.