Stalin’s Flying Hammer

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Each of the major World War II combatants had an airplane that personified it and its people: the Japanese Zero, the German Stuka, the British Spitfire, and (of course) the American Flying Fortress, which symbolized the nation’s entire wartime concept of strategic bombing. Soviet Russia had the Il-2 Shturmovik. Built by Ilyushin, the Il-2 was an armored tactical attack aircraft built in larger numbers than any combat aircraft before or since. In all, 36,163 Il-2s...

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