![]() Facing elite German fighter aces and thick German flak defenses, and flown by inexperienced crews, they took staggering losses, especially in the early years of the war. Sterrett rates the Sturmovik as the best close support aircraft of the war. “Though this made navigation critical and difficult to spot the target early, so inevitably there were medium altitude approaches to find targets, followed by shallow dives to strafe, bomb or rocket.” “They would pop over some ridge or forest and plaster a target without warning,” Sterrett continues. “The other preferred tactic was ‘shaving flight,’ or nap-of-the-earth flying,” says James Sterrett, author of Soviet Air Force Theory, 1918-194 5. Operating in large formations, the Sturmoviks used a tactic known as the “circle of death,” in which they would orbit over German tanks and then dive on the vehicles’ thinly-armored rears. ![]() Some 36,000 were built, making it the most produced warplane in history. “Precisely the qualities required of an assault aircraft.” “The main thing was that it was reliable and hardy,” recalled a Sturmovik pilot. Lacking smart bombs, they had had to go in low to shoot up ground troops and airfields, yet the liquid-cooled engine of a P-51 Mustang could seize up after being hit by a single bullet. That was why strafing was so dangerous for World War II fighter pilots. The Soviets estimated that a Sturmovik attacking a defended target faced 8,000 large-caliber and 200 small-caliber flak rounds every second, according to Il-2 Sturmovik Guards Units of World War II. Not only was armor plate an integral part of the airframe, but an armored “bathtub” protected the engine, cockpit, water and oil radiators and fuel tanks. 50-caliber machine guns and 2,500 pounds of bombs, or the devastating Hawker Typhoon with four 20-millimeter cannons, two tons of bombs and eight rockets.īut, oh, the Sturmovik could take damage, as befitted what was essentially a slab of armor with wings. But it is actually less firepower than a late-war fighter-bomber like the P-47 Thunderbolt, with eight. Two forward-firing 23-millimeter cannons and two 7.62-millimeter machine guns, as well as 1,300 pounds of bombs or eight air-to-ground rockets, sounds like a potent punch. But if anyone wonders where the A-10 got its 1,200 pounds of armor from, just look at the Il-2. The Il-2 Sturmovik ground attack aircraft, nicknamed “Flying Tank,” is not as well known as the Stuka, at least outside of Russia. Used as a strategic bomber in the Battle of Britain, it was mincemeat for the Royal Air Force Hurricanes and Spitfires. With fixed landing gear and a level speed of less than 250 miles per hour, it was very vulnerable to defending fighters and flak.Īgainst the hapless Poles and French, who lacked air defenses, the Stuka was devastating. But Rudel was also shot down or forced to land 32 times, which pointed to the Stuka’s major weakness. Rudel, the legendary Stuka pilot and unrepentant Nazi who flew the Ju-87G, claimed to have destroyed 519 Soviet tanks. In effect, the Ju-87G’s cannon was the World War II predecessor of the A-10's far more devastating 30-millimeter Gatling gun, whose depleted uranium shells sliced up Iraqi tanks in 19. As seen in the photo above, the cannon barrels stuck out almost as far as the Stuka’s propeller.įiring armor-piercing tungsten-carbide ammunition, these guns could penetrate a tank’s thin overhead and engine compartment armor. The Ju-87G was armed with a converted 37-millimeter anti-aircraft cannon in a pod under each wing. “I felt that the combat specifics, such as tactics, targets, aerial cannon effectiveness, austere field operations, surge sortie rates, air-ground communications and coordination, of the World War II close support experience were so relevant to designing a first-rate CAS plane that I required every member of the A-X concept design team to read Hans-Ulrich Rudel’s Stuka Pilot.” “The World War II close air support successes of both the Stuka and the Sturmovik had a major-and inspiring-influence in convincing all of us early A-X/A-10 proponents that close support was by far the most important mission of air power, certainly more so than strategic bombing,” A-10 designer Pierre Sprey tells War is Boring. It is the Sturmovik, along with the German Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber, that fathered the A-10. “They are as essential to the Red Army as bread and water,” he said. The Soviet dictator loved the A-10 of his day, otherwise known as the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik. ![]() If they were, Josef Stalin might have had them shot. It’s a good thing that the Air Force generals who want to retire the beloved A-10 Warthog were not around 70 years ago.
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