Tail Gunner.

This is coolbert:

"You have let down our country and our Red Army . . . Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats . . . I ask you not to try the government's patience, and demand that you manufacture more ILs. This is my final warning." - — Stalin

Here with good stuff on the Il-2, Soviet World War TWo [WW2] ground attack aircraft, with emphasis on the tail-gunner.

"Well you can't believe it, but the Shturmovik, which was their main ground-attack aircraft, flew like B-17s in formation and didn't attempt to make any evasive manoeuvres. And all they had was one peashooter in the back of each plane. Also, some of the pilots were women. Their peashooter was no threat unless they had a very lucky hit on you." - - Erich Hartmann in conversation with the decorated British test pilot Captain Eric Brown.

This is Yegarova. Soviet female Il-2 combat pilot, 242 missions. I have the greatest respect and admiration for Yegarova. I would fly tail-gunner for her any day!!

That pea-shooter that Hartmann is referring to is the tail-gunner of the Il-2, armed with a light machine gun. The original factory models of the Il-2 did NOT have the tail-gunner. Subsequent to excessive [?] initial combat losses, the Il-2 was fitted with a space for a tail-gunner, field-expedient, crude like. Tail-gunners apparently firing a thirty caliber [7.62 X 54R] machine gun. Tail-gunners impressed from the ranks of the Soviet Red Army penal battalions.

"field-modified to include a rear gunner . . . The gunner sat on a canvas sling with an improvised turret for a Degtyarev machine gun."

This is apparently a "DA, for mounting in aircraft ( (Degtyaryov hand-held infantry machine gun) or DP was a light machine gun firing the 7.62x54mmR cartridge)"

The penal battalion. Prisoners, persons convicted of trivial offenses, sentenced to ten years hard labor, atoning for their guilt, able to expiate their offenses by participating in suicidal ground frontal assaults or by flying in an Il-2 as a tail-gunner.

[please note that a ten years sentence at hard labor was the same as A DEATH SENTENCE within the Soviet system of justice. Ten ground assaults or ten aerial combat mission in an Il-2 would expunge the ten year sentence!! Normally a person would not be expected to survive ten ground assaults of ten aerial combat missions!]

"Suvorov claims from 1942 on, all Soviet airfields had attached penal companies of air gunners. Such companies were made up of prisoners who were considered to be 'enemies of socialism' or 'enemies of the people.' The air gunners were not provided with either armour protection . . . and were reliant entirely on their machine guns to ensure their own survival. The death rate among the air gunners was exceptionally high."

"According to Suvorov, prisoners who survived could theoretically clear their sentences after nine missions."

Such was the loses among the tail gunners that a prisoner from a penal battalion WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED TO SURVIVE TEN [nine?] COMBAT MISSIONS!!

"documents from the Soviet archives have come to light indicating the Soviet Air Force did in fact use 'penal squadrons' in some situations"

"Moreover, no armor protection was provided at all for rear gunners of early single-seat Il-2s which had been field-modified to include a rear gunner."

Later versions of the Il-2 sported a fifty caliber machine gun [12.7 mm] and provided some armor protection for the tail-gunner! Evidently this was the UB heavy machine gun!

"Berezin UB (Berezin Universal) was a 12.7 mm caliber Soviet aircraft machine gun widely used during World War II."

This particular photo shows in close-up the cockpit with the tail-gunner. That appears to be the fifty caliber machine gun, the UB!

"the Shturmovik, which was their main ground-attack aircraft, flew like B-17s in formation and didn't attempt to make any evasive manoeuvres"

From this comment by Hartmann, I am to infer that the Soviet was being criticized for a lack of flexibility, a massing of ground attack aircraft flying in formation NOT being see by Hartmann as a good thing?

During WW2, the Soviet PREFERRED the massing of weapons in all cases? Those Il-2 flying in formation attacking in concert were only following Soviet doctrine that emphasized mass and concentrated firepower?

A mass formation of Il-2 also enabled those tail gunners to provide MUTUAL SUPPORT FOR ONE ANOTHER? This too was seen as a positive from the Soviet perspective?

And send more Il-2!! This is your last warning!!

coolbert.