[Juha]

On Il-2. Out of curiosity checked the best sortie result of Finnish Hawk 75 (P-36) pilot against Il-2s and it was 1 1/3 by Ltn M. Joutsen in 15th June at 12.45-13.15 sortie. And Hawk 75s were armed at time with 1-2 12.7mm mgs (+ 2-5 rifle cal mgs). And there were suitable matches in Soviet losses, 2 Il-2s from 957 ShAP. Also Hillo and Ojapalo got 1/3 each. Now all Curtiss pilots whose oppinion I know admit that Il-2 was very, very difficult plane to shoot down with rather weak armament of Hawk 75 but it wasn't impossible. The few Hawk 75s seemed to have got 5 Il-2s altogether during summer 44.

Juha