- Il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika upgrade#
- Il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika full#
The protective armor shell employed a special alloy developed for the Il-2 its thickness varied by location on the airframe. Thus, the Il-2 could, and often did, absorb extraordinary battle damage and survive to fight another day. The forward fuselage section - protecting the aircraft’s fuel system, radiators and crew station - was built entirely of armor plate. Among the Shturmovik’s most important assets were its strength and robustness in combat. But for an aircraft, it was an amazing achievement. The Il-2 was anything but advanced in its mixed wood-and-metal construction, which was relatively easy to manufacture in significant numbers using relatively unskilled workers. Over the course of the war, a total of between 31,000 and about 36,000 Il-2s were to be produced - more than any other combat aircraft in WWII. Stalin.” Not surprisingly, Il-2 production increased sharply within weeks. (This plant) now produces one Il-2 a day….It is a mockery of the Red Army….I ask you not to try the government’s patience, and demand that you manufacture more Il-2s. Our Red Army now needs Il-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats. You have the nerve not to manufacture Il-2s until now. In a telegram to the directors of one of the troubled Il-2 plants, he wrote, “You have let down our country and our Red Army. Stalin did not conceal his rage at this disruption of production. This was not an easy task, since the German invasion had dislocated most of the production facilities.
Il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika full#
To achieve the IL-2's full potential, production needed to be sharply ramped up. Indeed, the Il-2’s combat initiation came on June 27, 1941, just five days after Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, when five Il-2s attacked a German convoy of tanks and mechanized infantry. Their pilots had only undergone a minimum training, and operational air tactics that ultimately would made the Il-2 so successful were not in existence yet. Even worse: Only 20 of them were in service with the frontier military districts. But of these, a mere 70 were actually in service at that time. About 249 Il-2s were built by the time Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Following successful flight tests, the type was ordered into production. After an Il-2 pilot wrote directly to Stalin, suggesting that a gunner behind the pilot was needed to fend-off Nazi fighters seeking to shoot-down the aircraft, the Il-2 was designed as a two-seater once again. Originally conceived as a two-seater, the Il-2 was redesigned as a single-seater to achieve better flying characteristics. Ilyushin’s idea was approved, and two prototype Il-2s were ordered, with the first flying in October 1939. Somewhat unusually for the normal Soviet aircraft acquisition process, there was no design competition or request for proposals from other Soviet aircraft design bureaus.
![il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4443/37393622210_d58de95552_b.jpg)
In early 1938, Sergei Ilyushin, head of the legendary Ilyushin aircraft design bureau, suggested to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin the idea of a “flying tank,” and asked that his bureau be allowed to design and construct such an aircraft. Its origins date back to the mid-1930s, when Soviet military specialists realized that the country needed a dedicated aircraft with dive-bombing capabilities, capable of independently attacking and disabling enemy ground forces and targets, including tanks and other armored vehicles. One of the most important of these new types was the Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik, a rugged single-engine ground attack aircraft. But delivery and integration of these new aircraft into the Air Force was slow and only a small number of the new bomber, fighter, and attack aircraft had made it to front-line air force units.
Il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika upgrade#
At the time of the attack, the Soviet Air Force was undergoing a major modernization program to upgrade its capabilities with a variety of new warplanes. When the Nazi Army attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Soviet government was thrown into confusion and disbelief they had not anticipated or actively prepared for this act. But today, only about a dozen Il-2s are in existence – their scarcity bearing witness to the savage brutality of the war on the Eastern front.
![il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika il 2 sturmovik battle of stalingrad swastika](https://il2sturmovik.ru/m/2015/01/23/ju52_1.jpg)
Not only was the Il-2 the most-produced combat aircraft of World War II, it is also the second most-produced aircraft ever, exceeded only by the Cessna 172. Barely known in the West, the Il-2 Shturmovik played an essential role in defeating the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility, a unique aircraft is waiting for restoration: the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2.