Response to Glider and Juha.

[Juha]

Hello Tony
on Flak suppression. It was difficult during WWII. Rockets were inaccurate, low flying a/c had to fly inside AA range before they could drop their bombs against those AA guns. So it was, at least during the first attack, up to onboard cannons and mgs. I wonder why you thing 2x23mm + 2x7,62mm better in that situation than 4x20mm (Il-2 vs Typhoon). One clear plus, aside better protection, to later Il-2s was that they had rear gunners who could try to suppress the AA position after a/c had overflown the position. Cluster bombs were one answer, napalm another, but they were effective only after attackers were first flew through the flak,
Finnish AA gunners thought that odds favoured them against Il-2s, so Il-2 was not an ideal answer to flak suppression.
Juha