Welcome to the Land Of Myth And Legends...
Where to start.
*The Firefly was not up armored, it was a standard Sherman V with a 17 Pounder gun installed in the turret. Find any source you want, it was not up armored.
*Tanks could not withstand direct hits from bombs. Here is the rub though: it was exceedingly difficult in WW2 to hit a small target like a tank, with a bomb while coming in at 250mph, which is why anti-armor cluster bombs were used later, and rockets, and cannon. A direct hit from a bomb would in all likelyhood disable or destroy a tank, *IF* you could land one right on it.
*The IL-2 and Typhoon, and P-47, and Fw190Fs, ect, were used primarily to hit "soft" targets: Infantry, artillery, convoys, trucks, half-tracks, armored cars, buildings, airfields, ect. They did attack tanks, yes, but that was not as common, and they didnt destroy near the # that some folks think. They tended to hit soft skinned vehicles MUCH more than tanks. Tank units relied on a vast plethora of support vehicles and men in the field (they needed fuel, ammo, all kinds of support vehicles), so, yes, an "armored unit" would suffer from air attack, but the actual # of tanks destroyed outright by air attack just wasnt that high.
So, back to the IL-2, did it just show up and strafe and the MBT goes boom? no, not really. Tanks were not easy to knock out, they were hard to hit, and heavily armored. Immobilizing one was probably more common than destroying it.
AC like the Hurricane IID, Ju87G, Hs-129, probably had the best record against MBTs (when they found some to shoot) from direct fire from AP shells fired from 37-40mm guns.
