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Il-2. Combat Use.![]()
Personnel training was extremely accelerated and limited, which, however, did not cause big problems, since the pilots had at least a year and a half or even two years of service in the troops and combat experience gained in the Winter War. The training consisted of performing several familiarization flights on the Su-2 (which was common until 1943, when a number of silts for training had already appeared) which had good aerobatic properties and allowed the pilots to become familiar with new technology (for example, retractable landing gear legs) ... After completing three flights on these machines, they were transferred to the Il-2, with which individual pilots "mastered" gradually, step by step. However, time was short and as a result, until the moment of the German attack, none of the pilots had yet practiced dropping bombs or launching "eres". But this cannot be considered a big problem, since the pilots had experience in dropping bombs on R-Zetas. The exception was the launch of missiles, which they had no idea about and which presented some difficulties for them at first. Assessing the state of affairs on the fronts, the Soviet leadership decided that it was so dramatic that it justified sending an underachieved regiment into battle. The unit arrived at its front-line airfield in Staro-Bykhov on June 27, 1941, and the next day, the three pilots under the command of Spitsyn made their first sortie and the Bobruisk area. This was the first combat mission of a Sturmovik in history. However, it did not end successfully, since after returning to the airfield, one of the Ilov was scrapped due to damage received as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire. Two days later, in a battle with fighters from the German JG 51, the regiment suffered its first losses in air battles. Already on July 1, part of the Getman was forced to fly to a new airfield located 50 km southeast of Klimovichi, where it became part of the 11th GARDEN. Already at that time, talking about it as a regiment is not entirely correct, since in a period of just 3.5 days of fighting, 4 ShAP lost 20 pilots (During the Winter War, the regiment lost one pilot, and then not in battle) and about 25-30 aircraft. The next machines were disabled during the flight to the new airfield, when, due to lack of fuel, they made an emergency landing in field 20 of the Il-2. In the shortest possible time, 15 of them were restored, but in one of the two that could not be repaired, the corpse of the pilot was found, which during landing hit his head on the sight, resulting in death. This was probably the first victim of the PBP-1 sight. At the new airfield, the first victim was the deputy commander of the regiment, who was shot in front of the formation, for cowardice, which consisted in failure to fulfill combat missions. The battles were so intense, and the mediocrity in their conduct and use of the materiel was so great that by July 11 only ... 18 pilots and 10 Il-2s remained in the regiment! (According to other data, there were 21 aircraft. This discrepancy may be due to the fact that in one of the sources we are talking about 10 Il-2 and 11 defective machines) A few days later, 215 ShAP arrived at the Pisarevka airfield, whose personnel was hastily trained to the remaining in live composition of 4 ShAP. In mid-August, Major Getman handed over the last three Ila to the commander of a related unit, Major L.D. Reino, and took the remnants of his regiment to the rear for reorganization. At this time, after the withdrawal of 4 ShAPs, there were already three assault regiments at the front, including the 215th itself, which had already been scorched by the flames of war, since from July 25 to July 3 he fought as part of the Western Front on his old I-152. As a result of the losses incurred and the choice of this unit as one of the first to be re-equipped, it was withdrawn from the front and relocated deep into Russia to receive the Il-2 and retrain. After about two incomplete weeks of familiarization flights on "Flying Tanks", the 215 ShAP was again sent to the front, where he continued combat training, which included, among other things, joint flights with the pilots of the 4th ShAP. Officially, Major Reino's unit made its first combat sortie only on August 21. 215 ShAP from the very beginning was a well-prepared, cohesive part. Already during the first two months of fighting, the pilots of this regiment demonstrated unusually high skills, destroying thousands of "fascists" and vehicles, dozens of tanks and aircraft at airfields (for example, on September 15, the regiment reported the destruction of 40 aircraft at the Smolensk airfield). However, the regiment earned its fame as a "tenacious" regiment during the Moscow battle during October and November 1941. During the execution of combat missions, this unit demonstrated the highest efficiency, thanks to which it was the first of about 150 assault regiments to receive the rank of a guards unit - 6 Guards. The second of the most effective regiments was the 65th ShAP, which fought under the command of Major A.N. Vitruk. Formed in the second half of May and armed with Flying Tanks in June, it was sent to the front (in the Leningrad direction) in early July. This regiment from the very beginning stood out among others in that the specialty of its pilots was not ordinary assault attacks, but ... attacks on German aircraft. Already on July 6, the pilots of this regiment stumbled upon 8 He-111 (in fact, it should have been Ju-88) and, without emptying the bomb compartments from the bomb load, after a short battle announced that they had shot down two of them, and a little later in the ensuing In a battle with fighters from JG 54, they managed to shoot down 3 Me-109s. Later, a part was transferred to Moscow, where, like the 215 ShAP, it achieved great success. In just one day, Vitruk's pilots announced the destruction of 80 tanks, 180 vehicles and two infantry battalions (in the winter of 1941/1942, this corresponded to the elimination of almost an entire tank division of the Wehrmacht!). At the beginning of July 1941, at the front, in the western direction, 430 ShAP also appeared, which was hastily formed from test pilots. However, this regiment had to be quickly disbanded due to the inability of hastily assembled pilots to carry out combat missions. Although they were experienced pilots, they had no military education and experience, and they had no idea about the conduct of battles as part of an assault regiment. After the regiment suffered huge losses, it was disbanded, and the pilots returned to the tasks for which they were more suitable. The battles were so intense, and the mediocrity in their conduct and use of the materiel was so great that by July 11 only ... 18 pilots and 10 Il-2s remained in the regiment! (According to other data, there were 21 aircraft. This discrepancy may be due to the fact that in one of the sources we are talking about 10 Il-2 and 11 defective machines) A few days later, 215 ShAP arrived at the Pisarevka airfield, whose personnel was hastily trained to the remaining in live composition of 4 ShAP. In mid-August, Major Getman handed over the last three Ila to the commander of a related unit, Major L.D. Reino, and took the remnants of his regiment to the rear for reorganization. At this time, after the withdrawal of 4 ShAPs, there were already three assault regiments at the front, including the 215th itself, which had already been scorched by the flames of war, since from July 25 to July 3 he fought as part of the Western Front on his old I-152. As a result of the losses incurred and the choice of this unit as one of the first to be re-equipped, it was withdrawn from the front and relocated deep into Russia to receive the Il-2 and retrain. After about two incomplete weeks of familiarization flights on "Flying Tanks", the 215 ShAP was again sent to the front, where he continued combat training, which included, among other things, joint flights with the pilots of the 4th ShAP. Officially, Major Reino's unit made its first combat sortie only on August 21. 215 ShAP from the very beginning was a well-prepared, cohesive part. Already during the first two months of fighting, the pilots of this regiment demonstrated unusually high skills, destroying thousands of "fascists" and vehicles, dozens of tanks and aircraft at airfields (for example, on September 15, the regiment reported the destruction of 40 aircraft at the Smolensk airfield). However, the regiment earned its fame as a "tenacious" regiment during the Moscow battle during October and November 1941. During the execution of combat missions, this unit demonstrated the highest efficiency, thanks to which it was the first of about 150 assault regiments to receive the rank of a guards unit - 6 Guards. The second of the most effective regiments was the 65th ShAP, which fought under the command of Major A.N. Vitruk. Formed in the second half of May and armed with Flying Tanks in June, it was sent to the front (in the Leningrad direction) in early July. This regiment from the very beginning stood out among others in that the specialty of its pilots was not ordinary assault attacks, but ... attacks on German aircraft. Already on July 6, the pilots of this regiment stumbled upon 8 He-111 (in fact, it should have been Ju-88) and, without emptying the bomb compartments from the bomb load, after a short battle announced that they had shot down two of them, and a little later in the ensuing In a battle with fighters from JG 54, they managed to shoot down 3 Me-109s. Later, a part was transferred to Moscow, where, like the 215 ShAP, it achieved great success. In just one day, Vitruk's pilots announced the destruction of 80 tanks, 180 vehicles and two infantry battalions (in the winter of 1941/1942, this corresponded to the elimination of almost an entire tank division of the Wehrmacht!). At the beginning of July 1941, at the front, in the western direction, 430 ShAP also appeared, which was hastily formed from test pilots. However, this regiment had to be quickly disbanded due to the inability of hastily assembled pilots to carry out combat missions. Although they were experienced pilots, they had no military education and experience, and they had no idea about the conduct of battles as part of an assault regiment. After the regiment suffered huge losses, it was disbanded, and the pilots returned to the tasks for which they were more suitable. Another bloody test for the Red Army Air Force was the famous air battle over the Kuban Peninsula (spring 1943), which ended in the defeat of the Soviet side, aggravated in addition by high losses. The most famous assault formation that took part in this battle was 230 ShAD, which had 5 regiments (including 1 regiment of LaGG-3 fighters), under the command of Colonel S.G. Getman, already known to us. This superfluous one, like many others, had successes interspersed with defeats, for example, on April 21, the crew of 805 ShAP ml. Lieutenant N.V. Rykhlin (pilot) and Art. Sergeant I.S. Efremenko (shooter), in the region of Novorossiysk on a knocked out Ila, fought a long battle with German fighters, after which he announced the destruction of four Me-109s. For this feat, confirmed by ground forces, both pilots were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, promoted in rank, and a little later the shooter was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Interestingly, Jr. Lieutenant I.S. Efremenko performed only a few sorties for less than two months (April-May) after which he died, and Art. Lieutenant N.V. Rykhlin, who shot down three Germans in an air battle and, moreover, returned to his airfield wounded, did not receive such an award. Just a few days later, a streak of defeats began. One of the largest was the attack of nine Il-2s from 805 ShAPs with an escort of 6 LaGG-3s from 979 IAPs on one of the Kerch airfields, after which 5 Il-2s did not return to the base. They were probably intercepted by 4 Me-109Gs from II / JG52 under the command of Fw.Quasta, whose pilots announced the destruction of 7 Il-2 and 5 fighters (however, identified as Yak-1). A similar pogrom occurred at the end of May, when four crews from a group of eight Il-2s of the same regiment, shot down by II / JG52 fighters, did not return to their airfield. Somewhat later, German anti-aircraft gunners also shot down the commander of one of the 805 ShAP squadrons. Already on July 22, during a regular operation against German airfields, 805 ShAPs out of 206 ShADs were intercepted by II / JG52 pilots and, as a result of an air battle, lost five Il-2s along with their crews, of which some of the pilots returned to the regiment a few days later. The crews of the "attack aircraft" announced the destruction of almost 20 enemy aircraft at the airfields. Another result was the battle that took place over the Black Sea on August 7. On this day, one of the pilots of the 11th ShAD Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet, V.A. Kalinin, being in a critical situation rammed a Me-109, which turned out to be an aircraft piloted by one of the aces II / JG52, Fw.Quasta. Both pilots were killed. The next intensity of air battles fell on the period of the struggle for the liberation of the Kuban Peninsula in late summer, early autumn 1943, on August 23, during a complex operation directed against the three main airfields II / JG52 and SG2. units of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force were repulsed, but on August 24 they made a new raid on Makeyevka, destroying 1 Fi-156 and damaging 6 Me-109 from III / JG52. The next period, during which the attack aircraft of the 4th VA and the Air Force of the Black Sea Fleet suffered heavy losses, were the battles during the landing on the Kerch Peninsula. During the period November 1943 to March 1944, almost the weight of the Hetman regiment (which was transferred to the Black Sea Fleet Air Force during the operation) lost about 50% of the materiel. For example, 46 GvSAP during two days of December (8-9) lost 5 Il-2, and a little later two squadron commanders. Already at the very beginning of the operation, the attack aircraft suffered huge losses. On November 1, the Black Sea Fleet Air Force lost 7 Il-2s and one fighter, and the next day, when Group II JG52 was replaced by Group I, losses immediately jumped to 15 Il-2s and 3 fighters. The stormtrooper pilots tried to "pay back" as best they could. And when they were no longer able to cope with the situation, they made desperate acts. Of the total number of eight German vehicles shot down in the period November 1-3, two were destroyed as a result of rams carried out by Lieutenant B.P. Volodov and Jr. Lieutenant Bykov, from the same first squadron 47 ShAD of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force. Both rammed but one Ju-88 in the same battle and both paid for it with their lives. On March 13, 1944, during a joint air operation over Feodosia involving 30 Il-2 from 11 ShAD and 38 fighters of the Black Sea Fleet Air Force, Soviet pilots again stumbled upon a desperate rebuff from pilots II / JG52 Barkhorn, as a result of which from the mission 7 Il-2 did not return, and 12 more (like one Yak-9) were badly damaged. Therefore, the attacks were no longer carried out until March 17, and the next time Ila was accompanied by a very numerous guard, thanks to which only one attack aircraft did not return from the mission. |
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