Il-2 Sturmovik
"You have let down our country and our Red Army. You have the nerve not to manufacture Il-2s until now. Our Red Army now needs Il-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats. (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. This is my final warning."
- – Joseph Stalin
The Ilyushin Il-2 was the primary ground attack aircraft of the Soviet Union during WWII. Described as a "flying tank", the Il-2 was heavily armored, designed to shrug off dedicated AA and ground fire as it delivered its payload to a target.
Flames of War[edit]
Mid war[edit]
With a 4+ on hit save, an aircraft save +2, and an AP of 6, with its 23mm cannons, will make a pretty hard target to get rid of and a dangerous force for your enemy's tanks, infantry, and everything in between. Its bombs & rockets have a relatively reliable 4+ firepower, which will usually destroy whatever you drop them on top off, counting that you can range in with your 5+ Skill. Good luck with that.
Late War[edit]
Real Life[edit]
The Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin of the Illyushin design bureau to meet a requirement for aircraft that could provide close air support to troops on the ground. See, the Sausage eaters weren't the only people paying attention to developments in Spain, and while the Western powers had determined that AT guns made the tank irrelevant, the Russians saw a role for aircraft to serve in a CAS role killing armored vehicles and supporting infantry advances.
The resulting aircraft was a heavily armored behemoth that was adapted from its original role to even include use as a torpedo bomber, in addition to having 20mm cannons and hundreds of pounds of bombs strapped to its wings. However, production was slowed when Hitler decided that Beer and Vodka could not coexist, and most of the industrial infrastructure for the Aircraft was evacuated East of the Ural mountains. In a rare moment of clarity, Stalin realized that the IL-2 was extremely important, and gently threatened Ilyushin personnel with the Gulag if production rates did not rise.
The IL-2 was a beast. It earned a fierce reputation against the Germans, who found that an inordinate amount of firepower was needed to shoot down a Sturmovik. On the other hand, because it handled like a flying freight truck there was virtually no circumstance in which an intercepted IL-2 could hope to duel with an enemy fighter. In such cases the Sturmovik's only real tactic was to maneuver as best it could and simply absorb bullets until the enemy plane either gave up or ran out of ammo; alternatively, some pilots would attempt to slow to minimum speed in the hopes that the tailing fighter would overshoot them and maybe end up in front of their own guns for once. As you can probably imagine, neither option was an ideal solution. Therefore, the 2M version and onward included a rear-facing 12.7mm machine gun operated by a dedicated gunner. While this resulted in more IL-2s coming home, the rear gunners themselves had among the highest casualty rates in the entire Soviet Air Force.
All that being said, not even Panthers or Tigers were safe from side or top attack from formations of Ilyushins. A particular instance during the Battle of Stalingrad saw IL-2s utterly rape the 17th Panzer division, reducing them from 300 armored vehicles to 60 in the span of a single day. Its cannons were powerful, but they were a sideshow compared to the eight RS-82 rockets. While the rockets were inaccurate, a direct hit would virtually guarantee a kill on any tank in service.
Production was slow to begin with, as much of Soviet industry was relocated east to the Ural Mountains. Nevertheless, in total some 36,183 Sturmoviks were produced, making it the most produced combat aircraft in human history (just edging out the Me109, which was in production for longer).
| Soviet Forces in Flames of War | |
|---|---|
| Tanks: | T-70 - Valentine - M5/M3 Stuart - M3 Lee - T-34 - KV - Churchill - IS-2 - Captured Tank Platoon - T-28 - BT-7 - KV-2 - T-26 |
| Transports: | M3 Scout Car - Universal Carrier - SdKfz 251 |
| Infantry: | Rifles - Motor Rifles - Penal Company - Storm Group - SMG Company - Engineer Sapper Company |
| Artillery: | Katyusha - 152mm Artillery - 122mm Artillery - 76mm Artillery - 120mm Mortars - 82mm mortars |
| Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns: | 45mm Anti Tank - 57mm Anti Tank - 76mm Anti Tank - 100mm Anti Tank - SU-76 - SU-85 - SU-100 - SU-122 - SU-152 - ISU-122/ISU-152 |
| Recon: | Scout Platoon - BA-64 Platoon - Armored Reconnaissance Platoon - Reconnaissance Platoon |
| Aircraft: | Il-2 Sturmovik |
| Anti-Aircraft: | ZSU M17 - DShK AA MG Platoon |
| Midwar Monsters: | KV-3 - KV-5 - T-43 |