Il-2 Sturmovik

"You have let down our country and our Red Army. You have the nerve not to manufacture Il-2s until now. Our Red Army now needs Il-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats. (This plant) now produces one Il-2 a day….It is a mockery of the Red Army….I ask you not to try the government’s patience, and demand that you manufacture more Il-2s. This is my final warning."

– Joseph Stalin

The flying tank.

The Ilyushin Il-2 was the primary ground attack aircraft of the Soviet Union during WWII. Described as a "flying tank", the Il-2 was heavily armored, designed to shrug off dedicated AA and ground fire as it delivered its payload to a target.

Flames of War

The Stats, comrade

Real Life

The Il-2 was designed by Sergey Ilyushin of the Illyushin design bureau to meet a requirement for aircraft that could provide close air support to troops on the ground. See, the Sausage eaters weren't the only people paying attention to developments in Spain, and while the Western powers had determined that AT guns made the tank irrelevant, the Russians saw a role for aircraft to serve in a CAS role killing armoured vehicles and supporting infantry advances.

The resulting aircraft was a heavily armored behemoth that was adapted from its original role to even include use as a Torpedo Bomber, in addition to having 20mm cannons and hundreds of pounds of bombs strapped to its wings. However, production was slowed when Hitler decided that Beer and Vodka could not coexist, and most of the industrial infrastructure for the Aircraft was evacuated East of the Ural mountains. Stalin, in a rare moment of clarity realized that the thing was extremely important, and "reasonably" threatened Ilyushin with the Gulag if production rates did not rise.

The IL-2 was a beast, and earned a fierce reputation against the Germans, who found that their 20mm cannons were ineffective against the sheer armored might of the things. The initial high rates of loss due to Luftwaffe aircraft were quickly rectified when they strapped a DSHK .50 cal machine gun in the IL-2M variant of the aircraft. Not even Panthers or Tigers were safe from side or above attack from formations of Ilyushins. A particular instance during the Battle of Stalingrad saw IL-2s utterly rape the 17th Panzer division, reducing them from 300 armored vehicles to 60 in the span of a single day.

Its cannons were powerful, but they were a sideshow compared to the eight RS-82 rockets. While they were inaccurate, they could be launched at 6km and utterly ruin anything they hit.

Production was slow to begin with, as much of Soviet industry was relocated east to the Ural Mountains. Nevertheless, in total some 36,183 of the things were produced, making it the single most produced combat aircraft in human history.

Soviet Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	T-70 - Valentine - M5/M3 Stuart - M3 Lee - T-34 - KV - Churchill - IS-2 - Captured Tank Platoon - T-28 - BT-7 - KV-2 - T-26
Transports:	M3 Scout Car - Universal Carrier - SdKfz 251
Infantry:	Rifles - Motor Rifles - Penal Company - Storm Group - SMG Company - Engineer Sapper Company
Artillery:	Katyusha - 152mm Artillery - 122mm Artillery - 76mm Artillery - 120mm Mortars - 82mm mortars
Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns:	45mm Anti Tank - 57mm Anti Tank - 76mm Anti Tank - 100mm Anti Tank - SU-76 - SU-85 - SU-100 - SU-122 - SU-152 - ISU-122/ISU-152
Recon:	Scout Platoon - BA-64 Platoon - Armored Reconnaissance Platoon - Reconnaissance Platoon
Aircraft:	Il-2 Sturmovik
Anti-Aircraft:	ZSU M17 - DShK AA MG Platoon
Midwar Monsters:	KV-3 - KV-5 - T-43