[Juha]

Hello Tony
On Il-2 vs Flak, IIRC Raus in Panzer East noticed that at first Il-2 was a great shock because it seemed to be impervious to 20mm AAA fire but they then discovered than 50-50 mixture of 20mm Minen and AP ammo was effective against it. Same finding was made by Finns, a 50-50 mixture of AP and HE made 20mm AAA guns effective against Il-2s, it was called “Murha-sekoitus” (“Murder-Mixture”) by Finnish gunners according to Biaudet, a 20mm Breda(Italian gun) troop and later a battery CO during 44 and the writer of a good book on Finnish AA during the Continuation War (1941-44). In fact Finnish AAA batteries found a way to use their twin 7,62mm AA-mgs against Il-2s. While the main guns of light AA batteries (20mm and/or 40mm) fired on incoming Il-2s the AA-mgs opened fired on them as they overflew the batteries, their mission was to kill the rear gunners.

Il-2 vs fighters, now Il-2 was not a easy kill but many pilots made multiple claims on them, appr 8 claiming 50 or more, IIRC the top Il-2 killler was Otto Kittel with 94 Il-2 kills, he happened to be a JG 54 pilot. Finns thought that Il-2 was a difficult target to Bf 109G but fairly easy target to Bf 109G-6/R6 (ie 109G with two extra 20mm in underwing gondolas) so the success of Kittel who was a Fw 190A pilot (4 20mm) is not surprising.

Juha