Transcript (by Youtube)


0s [Music]
5s the battles of World War II made dozens
9s of combat Vehicles into Legends tankers
12s achieved insane Feats on their Sherman's
14s t-34s and Panthers while the skies were
17s set ablazed by Mighty Mustangs and
19s Spitfires but one iconic vehicle of that
22s era is standing out even in this
23s extraordinary company
25s we're talking of course about the IL 2
28s stromovic the most produced military
30s aircraft in history
34s the work on the Evil 2 began in the
36s second half of the 1930s at the time the
39s standard attack aircraft of the Soviet
41s Air Force was still the R5 a biplane
44s light bomber aircraft which was already
46s pretty much outdated the use of combat
49s aircraft in the Spanish Civil War and in
51s China proved that ground fire was a
53s major threat to attack aircraft and so
55s the military decided that they needed a
57s new plane designed specifically for
59s close air support at the time the
61s military were very much in favor of
62s creating a speedy attack bomber so an
65s aircraft designer called Sergey
66s vladimirovich illusion came forward with
69s his own take on the concept he
71s envisioned something that was almost
73s like a flying tank a sturdy two-seat
75s monoplane aircraft with an enclosed
77s cabin the engine fuel tanks and Key
80s Systems were to be protected by an
81s armored shell and the pilot would be
83s protected by a thick layer of armored
85s glass if you consider the survivability
87s of this design alone it was already a
89s major breakthrough as only a few
91s contemporary aircraft were designed with
93s a comparable level of protection in mind
95s the top brass loved the idea of the new
99s aircraft but the first prototypes failed
101s to meet the expectations of both the
103s Soviet decision makers and illusion
105s himself it was clearly not the way to go
107s for instance the am-35 engine was
110s definitely not powerful enough to make
112s the new aircraft viable
116s in order to achieve the required level
118s of performance illusion redesigned the
121s aircraft as a lighter single-seat design
123s but it retained most features of the
125s early prototype it received a new engine
127s the am-38 which was optimized for low
130s altitude operation making it a great fit
132s for a ground attacker the aircraft was
135s armed with two wing-mounted 20
136s millimeter schwack cannons and two shkas
139s machine guns apart from that it could
141s also carry up to 600 kilograms of bombs
144s and unguided Rockets
150s this was the state in which the aircraft
152s now known as the eel-2 was accepted into
155s service without any proper trials the
158s first planes were delivered to the
160s airfields in late spring just a month
162s before the German invasion so this
164s ground attacker was actively used in
165s combat right from the get-go
167s as the el2 was being tested in battles
170s units of those ground attackers were
172s sustaining heavy losses in the beginning
174s the Soviet industry simply couldn't keep
176s up with the demand and to produce enough
178s aircraft to allow Soviet Pilots to fight
181s the luftwaffe on their own turns so
183s eel2s had to operate in a very dangerous
185s environment it's also worth noting that
188s the aircraft had quite a few flaws of
190s its own as it originally didn't have a
192s gunner it was very vulnerable to enemy
194s fighters to make a place for a rear
196s Gunner air Crews had to field modify
198s their aircraft by cutting a hole in the
201s fuselage it took literal years to
204s reintroduce the second cockpit for the
206s Gunner up until the end of 1942
208s production models were still being made
210s for a crew of one
215s nevertheless the eel2 became the main
217s ground attack aircraft of the Red Army
219s factories were churning out thousands of
221s them as they proved to be very useful on
224s the front lines bombs let this aircraft
226s eliminate lightly armored vehicles and
228s enemy Personnel its heavy armor
230s protection allowed it to survive enemy
232s fire and the guns well they meant that
235s it wasn't completely defenseless against
236s other aircraft even though it was still
239s not its specialty
241s in 1943 the Soviets employed a new
245s variant of the aircraft that received
247s massive upgrades for starters it became
249s a two-seater but it also got a new Wing
252s along with a modified cabin and an
254s upgraded am-38f engine furthermore as
258s more and more eel2s were being made the
261s Soviets started to outfit them with
262s wing-mounted 23 millimeter via 23
266s cannons the aircraft became more
268s reliable it could take even more
270s punishment than before and it was more
272s flexible with its choice of armaments
274s and Munitions the fact that it could
276s carry powerful bombs in its external
278s dispensers allowed this ground attack
279s aircraft to play an important role in
282s the Battle of curse and the later
283s battles of the second World War as those
286s bombs were very effective against enemy
288s armor
291s in the end the eel2 became one of the
293s most important assets of the Soviet
295s Union that made a major contribution to
297s the victory against Germany early in its
300s adoption this aircraft suffered from
302s high losses and numerous technical
304s issues but it still became a force to be
306s reckoned with it's no coincidence that
308s 36 000 of those rolled off the factory
311s floor the eel2 was produced in greater
313s numbers than any other military aircraft
315s in aviation history and it remained in
318s service long after the war up until the
320s mid-1950s but then the triumphant
323s arrival of jet aircraft and guided
325s Munitions made the military reconsider
327s their stance on classic ground attack
329s aircraft and for a decade they faded
332s Into Obscurity but that's a story for
335s another time
336s [Music]
342s foreign