Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik: The Flying Tank

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[mattsiede]

I would love to see a mega project done on a plane that came just a little too late in WWII... That plane was the p-61 Black Widow! My grandfather flew one towards the end of WWII.... it was an incredible night fighter.

[nikolairubinskii]

7:15 different variants carried VYa-23, ShVAK or NS-37 cannons and rear machine gun could be 12.7mm UBT or 7.62mm ShKAS. My grandad was a gunner on IL-2.

[benherring]

What timing! I have been playing a lot of IL2 in VR lately and jumped on to YouTube during my lunch hour to see if there were any interviews with old IL2 pilots on here. What did I discover? A fantastic new video from my favorite British conveyor of knowledge on the very subject of this cool aircraft. Thanks Simon!

[Egg.]

I wish one day simon makes a video about the douglas dc-3 . It changed aviation into what we know today.It is still flying commercially from 1935 and it would never be retired...

[anydaynow]

A mega project of the evacuation of the Soviet war industry and the workers to the Urals would be pretty awesome

[larryowsowitz]

My buddies who flew A-10s used a tactic call “Circle the Hogs” similar to the “Circle of Death “ tactic described in the video.

[bigtuna]

Hi Simon, should definitely do a megaprojects on either the battle of Kursk, or the Kursk submarine itself both great history, one can be filled with melancholy, the other filled with sorrow for the men in the soviet navy fleet who lost their lives

[zyoninkiro]

Ah, the Warthog's Russian granddaddy. The Sturmovik is a cool plane. It may not be elegant but it did its job in a very Russian fashion.

[tnix]

If you asked most people what is the most produced plane in history they'd have no idea this was it or even existed. Good megaproject.

[saulekaravirs]

Having studied the IL-2 quite a bit in my time as a WWII keyboard historian, I was quite interested to see if you came up with similar information to what I have found over the years. I am glad to say, that after watching the video, what I already knew matched quite well with what you found, even most of the stories matched. Well, done. We're either both correct, or both equally wrong.

I love flying the IL-2 in the simulator sharing its name and as such have done what I can to learn about it. Accounts of how it was used and how effective those uses were seem to match in the simulator. Although having the ability to learn from my own "deaths" does somewhat improve my effectiveness, it also helps the enemy, so that should balance out.

[rickgrendel]

I would like to see a video on the RC-135 series spy planes. They are pretty unknown but still to this day in use and important.

[bigemugamer]

IL2 Sturmovik for PC, such a great game back in the day. =D

[ignitionfrn]

3:00 - Chapter 1 - The flying tank
3:50 - Chapter 2 - Origins
6:30 - Chapter 3 - Specs
8:05 - Chapter 4 - Production
9:30 - Chapter 5 - Sturmovik in combat
10:30 - Chapter 6 - Changing tactics
13:20 - Chapter 7 - Rear gunners
15:20 - Chapter 8 - Air to air combat
16:15 - Chapter 9 - Notable Il2 pilots

[WildBillCox]

The Il 2 (Eel Dva) was improved in the Il 10. In this form it lasted in Soviet service until after the Korean War.

[greyphantom]

There is one of these at the Pima Air Mesuem, gonna see it this weekend!

[augustvonmackensen]

This is my final warning.

Motivational speech does not come better than that when delivered by Joseph Vissarionovich

[StarScapesOG]

Simon, could you please consider doing a video (or videos) on either Bagger 288/293 and or Bingham Canyon Copper mine? They are both the largest in their respective categories.

[Paul_Sergeyev]

"Encountering meager resistance"? Have you ever heard of the Brest fortress? There is a nice movie about that! A small garrison of the fortress took the initial attack of the german army and held out for a month whilst being deep in the enemy's rear. There were several accounts of soviet people just walking out in the streets with grenades. Several partisan squads were formed immediately after the invasion and didn't stop their activity until the land was liberated! One small fortress on the border held out almost as long as the entirety of France and much longer than most countries of Europe and you call that meager resistance?

[reggiep]

03:59 - That dude is just chill AF.. 'Ohh I appear to have crashed! I'll just hold on, things will be fine!' 🤣

[snjert]

What a cool plane. Awesome video, thanks, Simon and crew!