I Fought in a Ground Attack Aircraft: Both Books in One Volume

To the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory! The most complete edition of the Artëm Drabkin bestsellers “I fought on the Il-2”! TWO BOOKS IN ONE VOLUME! A unique collection of interviews with assault-pilots of the Great Patriotic War. The whole truth about one of the most dangerous military professions.

The words of I.V. Stalin, spoken in 1941—“Il-2 aircraft were needed by our Red Army as bread, as air”—remained relevant until the very end of the war. Our fighters called the famed assault plane a “flying tank” and the “bumpy” one (not only because of the distinctive fuselage shape, but also because “the ‘Ilys’ carried everything on their backs throughout the war”). The Germans dubbed it “Iron Gustav” and “Black Death.”

However, contrary to postwar myths, the Il-2 should not be considered “unmatched” or “invulnerable.” Its armor protected only against bullets and shrapnel, while its flight characteristics were fairly ordinary. What made it a formidable weapon were those who fought, died, and won in their “Il-2s”—the pilots and gunners of the assault aviation regiments of the Red Army Air Force. Their living voices and frank stories—you will hear them in this book: what they had to see and experience, what it’s like to carry out bombing-and-assault strikes under a hurricane of anti-air fire and repel attacks by enemy fighters; why the “Il-2s” were called “Black Death,” and what price was paid for the Great Victory.