"Shoe bast shoes": Military cunning of Soviet pilots

The legendary Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft is the most massive combat aircraft in history. history. From 1941 to 1949, more than 36 thousand of these winged machines were produced.

It is worth noting that the aforementioned demand for this aircraft was by no means accidental. The designers of OKB-240 called it "flying a tank". The Germans often called it the "black death" or "plague".

The fact is that the IL-2 had an armored fuselage. All the vital organs of the aircraft and the pilot were in an armored capsule, which made our attack aircraft invulnerable to many Luftwaffe winged vehicles. It was for this that the Soviet designers dubbed it the "flying tank".

In turn, the attack aircraft received the nickname "Black Death", which the Germans called the Il-2, because in addition to its direct purpose, it was often used as a fighter.

By the way, about the destruction of enemy aircraft. The Soviet pilots had a military trick, a tactical maneuver code-named "put on bast shoes."

In the course of its implementation, the Il-2 pilot released the landing gear and "attached" to a group of enemy J-87s.

The bottom line is that the IL-2 and J-87 were outwardly very similar. But the landing gear of the German car was not removed in flight. Thus, when our attack aircraft flew up to a group of Luftwaffe aircraft, it was initially taken as "one of its own", which made it possible for a surprise attack on the enemy.

At the same time, for the feature that consisted in a non-retractable landing gear, covered with fairings, which outwardly resembled legs in bast shoes, Soviet pilots nicknamed the German dive bomber J-87 "lappet".

Hence the code name for the above maneuver - "put on bast shoes".

One of these air battles became known from the memoirs of the Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Vasilyevich Kaprin.

Comments

[South Ukrainian]

How much we still do not know about the Great Patriotic War. I had never even heard of such an approach.

[KolVisin]

IL-2 legendary aircraft. A single-seat version was produced without a rear gunner, vulnerable in air combat. Ours came up with an imitation of the rear gun. (A handle from a shovel was inserted into the slot of the rear window.)

[Hitriy Zhuk]

CHSH was originally a shooter.
Then they "re-optimized", and it was removed.
In the end, they returned but it was too late.

[Grossvater]

Oh! How pleasant it must be to live when everything is so simple. The plane was converted into a single-seater because, alas, the engine power was simply not enough for the two-seat version. In general, the choice was small: either this or not at all. And a two-seat version appeared when Mikulin managed to boost the engine.
Let's lament then that the Su35 was not put into production before the war.
It is a very bad habit to judge the past without trying to understand all the circumstances.
By the way, contrary to popular belief, the introduction of the rear firing point did not greatly affect the level of losses of attack aircraft.
At first, of course, the effect of surprise worked, and then it became clear that the poor shooter was practically unprotected, and the firing sector was too small.
It was possible to reduce the level of losses by changing the tactics of both the attack aircraft themselves and the fighter cover.
Speaking of losses. During the war, about 8000 Il-2 pilots died, I understand that it is inhuman to talk about people as statistical units, but if you figure out how many lives of our soldiers were saved and how many Europeans were stuffed ....

[Hitriy Zhuk]

I'm off topic, but is 150KG (shooter and machine gun) - is it critical or not for such a machine?

[shikin]

Initially, both the pilot and the gunner (and the engine) were protected by an armored cab. Then the armored cabin, together with the shooter, was reduced (shortened). Then they added an arrow, but the armored cabin remained only for the pilot (and the engine). Moreover, after such an alteration, the shooter did not even have a normal seat - he sat on the belts.
And the survival rate of the shooter was highly dependent on the pilot. With good coordination on the signal of the gunner, the pilot took the aircraft away from the enemy's line of fire and gave a more convenient shooting angle for the gunner.
But it also happened that the shooters died much more often than the pilots.

[karabas86]

The engine is critically weak, we hoped for a more powerful one, but ....

[Alexey Lantukh]

I watch TV, where they show SU-25 pilots and helicopter pilots, and I think: these are the same gladiators who fought on the IL-2. Worse only unknown infantry.

[karabas86]

Initially, with a shooter, the combat load dropped to 200-250 kg, which was nothing at all. The engine is weak.

[novel66]

It is unlikely that this is a mass phenomenon, the attack aircraft did not hang around idle - they bombed, shot back - and to the base

[novel66]

By the way, the armor capsule should protect, first of all, anti-aircraft guns from fire, and they should cover their own from fighters

[Serge]

Our pilots used this technique even at Khalkhin Gol. The faster Chaika And 153 was disguised as And 15. And then they gave the Japs a thrush.

[fox_rudy]

In general, Sky Artist has very high-quality content! Subscribed to him.

[Knell wardenheart]

what made our attack aircraft invulnerable to many Luftwaffe winged vehicles

The author obviously did not read military memoirs well and, in principle, about IL-2. Pilots often called this aircraft "iron" because of its extremely weak maneuverability. For the same reason, he was not "invulnerable" to German aircraft - they stupidly sat on his tail and "forced" him to victory. Initially, the single-seat version was structurally completed to a double-seat precisely because of the deplorable state of affairs in this direction.

It was for this that the Soviet designers dubbed it the "flying tank".

No, because he was "relatively" badly hit from the ground (by situational German means) and had good structural survivability from this direction of damage. Il-2 was not a problem for special German anti-aircraft weapons, I remind you that at the beginning of the war, German air defense guns were almost the only ones capable of fighting the T-34. And he was much more armored than the plane.

[Hitriy Zhuk]

The tank is easier to hit.
We are not talking about an autocannon, but long-barreled anti-aircraft artillery.

[your1970]

A somewhat unexpected reception for the war ....
Some of the admins were hit by the autocorrect of the word "la / pti"

[sergo1914]

"This is a fiasco, bro." I'm too dumb to comment on khokhlopiteks in relation to the IL-2 attack aircraft

[karabas86]

The Germans never called IL 2 black siege. This myth has been debunked many times over. Butcher, cement bomber, iron gustav.

[svp67]

The Germans often called it the "black death" or "plague".

Nsh more often: ""Cement-bomber" and "Iron Gustav""

[sergo1914]

Oh, the moderator woke up. The messages are worn out, but the question remains, if you write in the comments instead of "Ukrainian" - "bast shoes", what will happen? Still, VO invented a new word.

[saran]

Amendment Il-2 was produced until 1945, then Il-10, in 1949 it was removed from service.

[Frank Muller]

It is difficult to say how often the mentioned method of "putting on bast shoes" was effective. As a long-gone attack pilot (from the neighboring entrance of our house where I once lived) said, some of our pilots really tried to "mow" under "Stuki" (Yu - 87) with a similar technique. But this was extremely rare: experienced German gunners and pilots made mistakes infrequently, perhaps from afar. In the "face" of the Yu - 87, the wings had an expressive "reverse gull" figure with the chassis protruding at the bend, of the Il - 2 they were even, with clearly visible wheel gondolas. But, even without "shoeing sandals", Soviet aviation still won the battle for the sky. Albeit at the cost of considerable losses.

[Illanatol]

Quote: Grossvater

Speaking of losses. During the war, about 8000 Il-2 pilots died, I understand that it is inhuman to talk about people as statistical units, but if you figure out how many lives of our soldiers were saved and how many Europeans were stuffed ....

If we correlate with the losses of the aircraft of this type themselves - not so much.
Contrary to popular belief, even the arrows on the IL-2 were not suicide bombers. In the event of an attack aircraft being shot down, the shooter had a 70% chance of saving his life. The pilot's chances were even higher, so the aircraft, on the whole, was successful and justified the costs of its development and creation.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Glorious Soviet pilots and the great Russian language)