in
Warsaw Initial use and operational confusion The first use in action of the Il-2 was with the 4th ShAP (Ground Attack Regiment) over the
Berezina River days after German invasion began. The aircraft was so new that the pilots had no training in flight characteristics or tactics, and the ground crew no training in servicing or re-arming. The training received enabled the pilots only to take-off and land; none of the pilots had fired the armament, let alone learned tactics. There were 249 Il-2s available on 22 June 1941. In the first three days, 4th ShAP had lost 10 Il-2s to enemy action, a further 19 were lost to other causes, and 20 pilots were killed. By 10 July, 4th ShAP was down to 10 aircraft from a strength of 65.
New tactics Tactics improved as Soviet aircrews became used to the Il-2's strengths. Instead of a low horizontal straight approach at altitude, the target was usually kept to the pilot's left and a turn and shallow dive of 30 degrees was used, using an
echeloned assault by four to twelve aircraft at a time. Although the Il-2's
RS-82 and
RS-132 rockets could destroy armored vehicles with one hit, they were so inaccurate that experienced Il-2 pilots mainly used the cannon. Another potent weapon of the Il-2 were
high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT)
shaped charge bomblets named
protivotankovaya aviabomba (
PTAB, "anti-tank aviation bomb"). They were designated PTAB-2.5-1.5, as they had a total weight of , and an explosive charge of . Up to 192 were carried in four external dispensers (
cluster bombs) or up to 220 in the inner wing panels' internal ventral weapon bays. The charge could easily penetrate the relatively thin upper armor of all heavy German tanks. PTABs were first used on a large scale in the
Battle of Kursk. The Il-2 was thereafter deployed widely on the Eastern Front. The aircraft could fly in low light conditions and carried weapons able to defeat the thick armor of the
Panther and
Tiger I tanks.
Effectiveness as attack aircraft The true capabilities of the Il-2 are difficult to determine from existing documentary evidence. W. Liss in
Aircraft profile 88: Ilyushin Il-2 mentions an engagement during the Battle of Kursk on 7 July 1943, in which 70 tanks from the German
9th Panzer Division were claimed to be destroyed by Ilyushin Il-2s in just 20 minutes. In another report of the action on the same day, a Soviet staff publication states that: In the
Battle of Kursk (Operation Citadel), General V. Ryazanov became a master in the use of attack aircraft
en masse, developing and improving the tactics of Il-2 operations in co-ordination with infantry, artillery and armored troops. Il-2s at Kursk used the "circle of death" tactic: up to eight Shturmoviks formed a
defensive circle, each plane protecting the one ahead with its forward machine guns, while individual Il-2s took turns leaving the circle, attacking a target, and rejoining the circle. Ryazanov was later awarded the Gold Star of Hero of Soviet Union twice, and the
1st Assault Aviation Corps under his command became the first unit to be awarded the honorific title of Guards. In 1943, one aircraft was lost for every 26 Shturmovik sorties. About half of those lost were shot down by fighters, the rest falling to anti-aircraft fire. In addition, it is difficult to find any first-hand accounts by German panzer crews on the Eastern Front describing anything more than the occasional loss to direct air attack. The vast majority, around 95–98%, of tank losses were due to enemy anti-tank guns, tanks, mines, artillery, and infantry assault, or simply abandonment as operational losses (due to causes such as mechanical breakdown or running out of fuel), which mostly happened during the last eleven months of the war. During the Battle of Kursk, VVS Il-2s claimed the destruction of no less than 270 tanks (and 2,000 men) in a period of just two hours against the 3rd Panzer Division. On 1 July, however, the 3rd Panzer Division's 6th Panzer Regiment had just 90 tanks, 180 fewer than claimed as destroyed. On 11 July (well after the battle), the 3rd Panzer Division still had 41 operational tanks. The 3rd Panzer Division continued fighting throughout July, mostly with 48th Panzer Corps. It did not record any extraordinary losses to air attack throughout this period. As with the other panzer divisions at Kursk, the large majority of the 3rd Panzer Division's tank losses were due to dug-in Soviet anti-tank guns and tanks. Perhaps the most extraordinary claim by the VVS's Il-2s is that, over a period of four hours, they destroyed 240 tanks and in the process virtually wiped out the 17th Panzer Division. On 1 July, the 17th Panzer Division had only one tank battalion (the II./Pz Rgt 39), with 67 tanks,173 fewer than claimed destroyed by the VVS. The 17th Panzer Division was not even in the main attack sector, but further south with the 1st Panzer Army's 24th Panzer Corps. The 17th Panzer did not register any abnormal losses due to aircraft in the summer of 1943, and retreated westwards with Army Group South later in the year, still intact. Towards the end of war, the Soviets were able to concentrate large numbers of Shturmoviks to support their main offensives. The frequent duels between dug-in 20 and 40 mm AA guns and Il-2 attackers never resulted in the complete destruction of the gun, while many Il-2s were brought down in these attacks. The heavy armor of the Il-2 also meant that it would typically carry only comparatively light bomb-loads. The rocket projectiles especially were not effective, even the larger
RS-132 (of which four were carried) having a warhead with only of explosives, which compared poorly with the P-47's typical load of ten
HVARs, each having of explosives, or the eight to twelve
RP-3 rockets on the Hawker Typhoon, each with of explosives. Likewise, the Shturmovik's bombs were usually only , or rarely . To compensate for the poor accuracy of the Il-2's bombsight, in 1943, the Soviet Command decided to use shaped-charge armor-piercing projectiles against enemy armored vehicles, and the
PTAB-2.5-1.5 SCAP aircraft bomb was put into production. These small-calibre bombs were loaded directly into the bomb bays and were dropped onto enemy vehicles from altitudes up to . As each Il-2 could carry up to 192 bombs, a
fire carpet long and wide could cover the enemy tanks, giving a high "kill" probability.
The "flying tank" Thanks to the heavy armor protection, the Il-2 could take a great deal of punishment and proved difficult for both ground and aircraft fire to shoot down. A major threat to the Il-2 was German ground fire. In postwar interviews, Il-2 pilots reported and artillery as the primary threat. While the fabled calibre gun was formidable, low-flying Il-2s presented too fast-moving a target for the 88's relatively low rate of fire, only occasional hits were scored. Similarly, Finnish attempts to counter the Il-2 during the summer of 1944 proved ineffective as a result of the low numbers of AA in the field army. Heavier guns drawn from homeland defence proved also relatively ineffective and few Il-2s were downed despite attempting different tactics with time-fused fragmentation, contact-fused, and shrapnel ammunition: the heavy guns simply lacked the reaction times to take advantage of the brief firing opportunities presented by the low-altitude Il-2 attacks. Soviet troops often requested additional passes even after the aircraft were out of ammunition to exploit the intimidating effect Il-2s had on German ground troops, who gave it the nickname the "flying tank". It was also called the "black death" by German troops.
Luftwaffe pilots called it the
Zementbomber (). The Finnish nickname
maatalouskone ( or 'tractor') derived from a word play with
maataistelukone 'ground attack aircraft' (), where 'machine' in turn is shortened from 'aircraft' ().
Rear gunner , Serbia Heavy losses to enemy fighters forced the reintroduction of a rear gunner; early Il-2s were field modified by cutting a hole in the fuselage behind the cockpit for a gunner sitting on a canvas sling armed with a
UBT machine gun in an improvised mounting. The semi-turret gun mount allowed the machine gun to be fired at angles of up to 35° upwards, 35° to starboard and 15° to port. Tests showed that maximum speed decreased by between and that the two-seater was more difficult to handle because the
center of gravity was shifted backwards. At the beginning of March 1942, a production two-seat Il-2 with the new gunner's cockpit began manufacturer tests. In January 1943, two-seat attack aircraft powered by uprated AM-38F engines (
Forseerovannyy – uprated) began to arrive at front line units. Nonetheless, the death rate among the air gunners remained exceptionally high and it was only for late models produced after 1944 that the rear plate of the armour shell was moved rearwards into the (wooden) rear fuselage to allow a gunner to sit behind the fuel tank. The armour did not extend to the rear or below although side armour panels were riveted to the rear armour plate to protect the ammunition tank for the UBT machine gun, providing some measure of protection. The modifications, including adding the rear gunner and gun, had added weight behind the center of gravity, resulting in "marginal" stability and handling characteristics that were "barely acceptable". The need to shift the
aerodynamic center of the aircraft forwards due to the weight of the added rear gunner and lengthened cockpit was the reason for the swept back outer wings in later Il-2s. In February 1945, the highest scoring German flying ace to be killed in action,
Otto Kittel, was shot down by return fire from an Il-2.
Air-to-air combat Owing to a shortage of fighters, in 1941–1942, Il-2s were occasionally used as fighters. While outclassed by dedicated fighters such as the
Messerschmitt Bf 109 and
Focke-Wulf Fw 190, in dogfights, the Il-2 could take on other
Luftwaffe aircraft with some success. German front line units equipped with the
Henschel Hs 126 suffered most of all from the ravages of Il-2s. Il-2 pilots also often attacked close formations of
Junkers Ju 87s, as the machine guns of the
Ju 87 Stukas were ineffective against the heavily armoured
Shturmoviks. In the winter of 1941–1942, Il-2s were used against
Luftwaffe transport aircraft, and became the most dangerous opponent of the
Junkers Ju 52/3m. Pilots of 33rd GvShAP were the most successful in these operations. Other successful units were those in 1942–1943 operating near
Stalingrad. Their targets were not only Ju 52s but also Heinkel He 111 and
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor bombers, delivering supplies to the besieged German troops. While the Il-2 was a strong air-to-ground weapon, and even a fairly effective interceptor against slow bombers and transport aircraft, heavy losses resulted from its vulnerability to fighter attack. Losses were very high, the highest of all types of Soviet aircraft, though given the numbers in service this is only to be expected.
Shturmovik losses (including the Il-10 type) in 1941–1945 were of 10,762 aircraft (533 in 1941, 1,676 in 1942, 3,515 in 1943, 3,347 in 1944 and 1,691 in 1945). The main defensive tactic was to fly low and reduce power as the enemy fighter closed in. This could make the fighter overshoot and fly into the Il-2's firing zone. ==Notable aircrew==