Aviation in World War II : Part 3

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Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovikh

An artist’s sketch depicts the Soviet Union’s Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovikh ground-attack airplane. This aircraft proved to be especially effective as an antitank weapon and was used extensively against German forces on the Eastern Front.

Tactical air power played a major role in the invasion of Europe. Allied fighters controlled the skies over the Normandy (Normandie) beaches before the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944. Air superiority was never in doubt, and fighters armed with guns and rockets proved to be effective, fast-responding anti-tank weapons, similar to the performance of the Russian Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovikh ground-attack airplane on the Eastern Front.

Aircraft carriers were the decisive weapon in the vast Pacific theater. Japan opened the Pacific war with bold and successful air attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and other United States and British bases in the Pacific on December 7 and 8, 1941. The real turning point of the Pacific war came on June 4, 1942, when American carrier-based aircraft sank four Japanese carriers and a heavy cruiser in the waters northwest of Midway Island. The Japanese Navy never recovered from the loss of hundreds of its most experienced pilots.