Losses were significant, but no other aircraft inflicted such damage on the enemy Axis losses of all categories (tanks, cars, men, aircraft, ships, fortifications, ad nauseum) to the Shturmovik were astounding, so it was a significant weapon for Russia turning the tide of the war in their favour and their ultimate victory. It has been reported that the Il-2 suffered one of the lowest losses in the VVS (Army Air Force) but this is not true. It is even harder to comprehend that the British answer to the need for a low level daytime bomber, the Fairey Battle, and the Russian answer for ground attack aircraft, the Il-2, were both designed under similar specifications.

With such phenomenal numbers 2,300 being built in each of the eight months of 1944, it is staggering that there are only a dozen complete examples within museums today (although a number of airframes have been recovered over the last 20 years). The Il-2 has the record of being the most widely-built aircraft ever produced 36,136 were built between the beginning of June 1941, when large scale production was implemented and until production of the standard Il-2 ceased in October 1945 and the Il-2U trainer at the end of 1946. We thought our readers would enjoy reading this account, not to mention seeing a number of new images which have since come to light.Īrctic Lake Recovery of an Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik While we reported on the details as we knew them then, we have recently received a fabulously detailed article written by Mark Sheppard which goes into greater depth on both the recovery and the battle in which the aircraft went down.

Back in August, we published a brief story covering the recent recovery of a remarkably intact Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik from a lake in present-day Russia.

Il 2 sturmovik 1946 level stabilizer