Il-2M white 20 and 21, 22 taxiing at airfield
Abandoned Il-2 of the 61 ShAP (61st Assault Aviation Regiment)
Burning IL-2 code 77, 1942-43
Il-2M code 12, Summer 1943
IL-2 pilot Andrej Zvancov
Abandoned IL-2 and SB-2, 1941
IL-2 crew prepares to flight
Il-2M3 of the 567 ShAP, 16th Army over Berlin, 1945
IL-2 and SdKfz 232 of the 36 Panzer Regiment, 14th PD
Ground crew performing maintenance on an Il-2
Briefing of an Il-2 crews
IL-2M code 38 after a belly landing
IL-2 single seater after a crash landing
IL-2 single seater. Shatalovo air base in Smolensk Oblast, August 1941
Ground attack aircraft Il-2M3
Ground-attack aircraft Il-2 code 14
Sturmovik crew briefing before flight
Il-2 rear gunner in his position
Ilyushin Il-2 two-seater code 5
Il-2 code 3 of the 74 ShAP (74th Assault Aviation Regiment) 1941
Early IL-2 code 2 and I-16, Old Bychov June-July 1941
IL-2 of the 4 ShAP (4th Assault Aviation Regiment), July 1941
IL-2 “white 2” of the 4 ShAP (4th Assault Aviation Regiment), July 1941
Ilyushin Il-2 single seater
Ilyushin IL-2 with rockets
Ilyushin Il-2M3 code 2 1944
Polish Ilyushin Il-2M white 24
IL-2 of the 4 ShAP (4th Assault Aviation Regiment), July 1941 3
Il-2M3 “19” over Berlin 16 April 1945
Ilyushin Il-2 single-seaters of prewar production
Il-2m3 “So Strelkoi” flown by the test pilot Kokkinaki, 1943
IL-2 of the 15 GShAP (15th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment)
Ilyushin Il-2M3 Shturmovik
Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik 1942
IL-2 and wehrmacht troops
Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmovik white 6
Wreckage of a IL-2 Sturmovik
IL-2 and Wehrmacht soldier with motorcycle
Wreckage of a IL-2 in hangar
Ilyushin IL-2M number 322
Ilyushin Il-2 sturmovik early
Ilyushin Il-2 sturmovik photo
Ilyushin Il-2 sturmovik 5
Perhaps the most famous aircraft to appear in the ranks of the Soviet Air Force during World War II, the Ilyushin Il-2 (Илью́шин Ил-2) introduced a new word into the parlance of ground attack and close support operations: Sturmovik. This aeroplane was specifically designed for such missions, and made its service debut in 1941 as a single seater. It was well armed: two 20 mm or 23 mm cannon and two 7,62 mm machine guns, and well armoured, with plating behind, beneath and each side of the pilot. Despite this protection, however, Sturmovik proved vulnerabld to attack from the rear, and in 1942 a new version appeared in which the cockpit enclosure was lengthened to accommodate a second crew member operating an additional 12,7 mm machine gun for rearward defence.
This modification proved eminently successful, and the Ilyushin Il2 finished the war with the lowest attrition rate of any Russian aircraft, not to mention an excellent record of ground strafing,
train busting and similar missions in which, incidentally, it was one of the first wartime aircraft to make use of the rocket projectile (RS-82 and RS-132).