Il-2 Shturmovik
by Victor Povinsky

MMP Books

Reviewed by Brad Fallen

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Shturmovik, Sturmovik or Stormovik:  however you spell it, Ilyushin’s Il-2 was one of the greatest combat aircraft of World War 2.  Unglamorous and expendable, nearly one-third of the 36,000 Il-2s built were lost in action.  But as Stalin said, “quantity has a quality all its own”, and Shturmoviks played a key role in the Soviet Union’s attrition and defeat of German forces.

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The Il-2’s refinement into a war-winning ground attack weapon is thoroughly covered in this study by Victor Povinsky.  Its 208 A4 pages allow plenty of room for detail, and Povinksy uses the first 90 to explore Shturmovik evolution through a number of short but focused chapters.  Subjects covered include:

• The prototype’s troubled development.

• Initial series production of straight-winged, single seat variants that – despite showing promise – were shot down in droves by the Luftwaffe. 

• Initiatives to improve Il-2 survivability, including more armour and the installation of a rear gunner’s position – initially as a field modification and later in the factory.  The resulting shift in the centre of gravity necessitated the introduction of a 15-degree swept wing from late 1943.

• Some of the Il-2’s lesser-known roles such as tank- and ship-buster, trainer, artillery spotter and fighter (the latter not surprisingly without success).

• Technical description and external weapon loads and options.

• Tables of technical data, performance, production numbers, and combat losses.

• M-82 engined and UTK-1 turreted experimental airframes.

• Il-2 use by Polish, Czech, Yugoslavian and Mongolian forces.

• A list of preserved Il-2s.

The chapters on Il-2 development are copiously illustrated with black and white period photos that – while not of universally great quality – are always relevant to the topic being discussed.  The photos are backed up by dozens of 1/72 scale plans, and scrap drawings of specific subjects.  For example, five detailed drawings are devoted to explaining the canopy evolution of early production two-seat Il-2s built at Factory No.18.  This is exactly the information that makes this volume invaluable as a modelling resource.

So are the next two sections of the book – 70 pages of full-colour plans and profiles, which show the great variety of camouflage schemes applied to Il-2s, and 48 pages of full-colour walkaround photos of preserved Il-2s.  The latter are supplemented by a number of contemporary black and white photos and drawings from Il-2 technical manuals that, used in conjunction with the colour shots, should answer most modellers’ questions about Il-2 detail.

The book concludes with a short bibliography of Russian-language texts, all dated between 1941 and 1944 and therefore most likely official manuals and similar publications.

Overall production quality is very good.  The text is clearly written with no typographic errors that I could find, and the photos well chosen, crisply printed and appropriately captioned.  The colour profiles are also well done and will provide plenty of inspiration.

This book is a great resource on Shturmovik development, camouflage and details.  It’s not a complete history of the type:  for example, Il-2 operational use is not covered.  However Povinsky has done modellers, in particular, a great service and I can highly recommend his volume to anyone considering an Il-2 build in any of the major scales

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to MMP Books  for the sample.

All MMP Books are available direct from the publishers, who now accept credit cards (Visa, MC, Amex, Switch)  

North American distributors are MMD, Australian distributors are Platypus Publications. In Europe, the books are available from any good bookshop (via our UK distributors, Orca). Contact MMP direct in case of difficulties. 

Thanks to Roger at MMO Books  for the sample.

Review Copyright © 2016 by Brad Fallen
This Page Created on 26 July, 2016
Last updated 26 July, 2016

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