Discover how the Soviet Ilyushin IL-2 “Shturmovik” transformed from a ridiculed “flying tractor” into the most terrifying weapon of the Eastern Front, as German pilots who once mocked its clumsy shape came to fear the roar of its armored wings that turned battlefields into firestorms.
This meticulously researched 12,000-word historical chronicle traces how the IL-2—initially dismissed in 1941 as a slow, heavy curiosity—became the embodiment of Soviet retribution, surviving thousands of direct hits that would have shattered any other aircraft. Drawing from declassified combat reports, pilot diaries, and post-war testimonies, the narrative follows front-line aviators like Senior Lieutenant Alexei Morozov, who led assault flights over Kursk and Stalingrad through curtains of flak, and documents how the “flying tank,” built from 700 kg of steel armor and armed with 23 mm VYa cannons, 10 rockets, and half a ton of bombs, annihilated German armor with mathematical precision.
Featuring firsthand German accounts from aces who admitted that “the Shturmovik cannot be destroyed,” and Soviet archives revealing how factories beyond the Urals produced over 36,000 aircraft—one every hour at the war’s peak—this film exposes how an aircraft born in mockery became the sound of doom to every Wehrmacht soldier who heard its engine thunder across the steppe. From the desperate Luftwaffe reports describing “unshootable armored planes” to the psychological terror known as “Sturmovik Fieber”, this comprehensive story unveils how Soviet industrial will and human endurance merged into an unstoppable machine that buried Nazi Germany under fire and steel.
By the war’s end, the IL-2 had flown more than a million combat sorties, destroyed over 20,000 tanks and 100,000 vehicles, and earned its final title from both friend and foe alike:
“The Plane That Could Not Be Killed.”
Credit to : INSANE CLIPS