First place goes to the ubiquitous civilian Cessna 172. More than 36,000 Il-2 Sturmoviks were built over the course of the war, making it the second most widely produced airplane ever. This is my final warning.”Ĭoming from a man who had given no warning whatsoever to hundreds of thousands of Red Army officers executed for suspected disloyalty, the message must have proven motivational. I ask you not to try the government’s patience, and demand that you manufacture more Ils. It is a mockery of our country and the Red Army. Shenkman produces one IL-2 a day and Tretyakov builds one or two MiG-3s daily. 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. “You have let down our country and our Red Army.
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Yet as German tanks blazed a trail toward Moscow in the fall of 1941, Stalin found time to personally address this famous telegram to the Il-2 factory managers. The VVS lost more than 4,000 aircraft of all types in the disastrous first month of hostilities - the Fourth Regiment, for example, lost 55 of its 65 Sturmoviks - and the Il-2 production facilities had to be evacuated east of the Ural Mountains, interrupting deliveries for two months. During periods of intense fighting, one Sturmovik was being lost for every 10 combat missions, a ratio that would “improve” to one loss for every 26 missions in 1943. German pilots dubbed the Il-2 the “Concrete Bomber” - a commentary perhaps both on its durability and agility, or lack thereof. However, the Sturmoviks sustained devastating losses as faster German fighter planes swooped around to hit their unarmored rears. Thrust into a desperate effort to blunt German advancing mechanized spearheads, Sturmovik pilots discovered their armor rendered the Il-2 nearly immune to machine gun fire from the front, and even gave it a chance to survive 20-millimeter cannon shells. Only a small number of Il-2s were deployed to frontline units - notably in the Fourth Aviation Assault Regiment - when the Wehrmacht began its devastating invasion of the Soviet Union on June 1941. The Sturmovik’s robust landing gear was also designed to handle rough frontline airstrips. Even the canopy averaged six centimeters of armored glass. However, it was slightly faster, at 250 miles per hour, and more heavily armed, with two 20-millimeter cannons in addition to two machine guns in the wings.Īn armored tub five to 12 millimeters thick shielded the cockpit, fuel tanks, AM38 engine and radiators. Offering a host of different colour schemes and detailed notes, this is indispensable reading for enthusiasts and modellers alike.After several prototypes, the resulting single-seat Il-2 production aircraft weighed nearly 10,000 pounds, compared to 7,000 for the Stuka, and could carry a similar maximum bomb load of around 1,100 pounds. The markings of aircraft piloted by famous and infamous German bomber and anti-tank ‘aces’ such as Ju 87 tank-buster extraordinaire Hans-Ulrich Rudel, the leader of the world’s first jet-bomber strike Dieter Lukesch and Hs 123 Knight’s Cross holder Josef‘Bazi’ Menapace are meticulously reproduced, based on original photographs, alongside a wide range of schemes from every year of the war and every front.
TANK BUSTER WW2 FULL
Luftwaffe Bombers offers more than 200 highly detailed full colour profiles from world renowned artist Claes Sundin, covering all of Germany’s most famous bomber, dive-bomber, close-support and ground-attack types – the Dornier Do 17 and Do 217, Heinkel He 111 and He 177, Junkers Ju 87, Ju 88 and Ju 188, Henschel Hs 123 and Hs 129, Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Me 262, and Arado 234. As the tide of battle turned, the Luftwaffe’s attention was refocused on the deserts of North Africa and the frozen steppes of the Eastern Front, where bombers and ground-attack aircraft played a key role in supporting German army units. The German bomber fleet operated as a terror weapon of the Nazi regime during the early years of the Second World War – bombing and killing thousands of innocent civilians during the Blitz. Here’s a little more information from the publishers I mean, just take a look at these two photos from inside the title and make sure you also see the video to see more – truly inspirational stuff for all – especially scale modellers.
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TANK BUSTER WW2 SERIES
This and the others in the series is an astonishing title – the quality of the artwork is breathtaking and it’s all brought to you at a highly competitive price.