Plus (and I know I have said it elsewhere) the PTAB
below is a short video clip of the effect of a single IL2 PTAB salvo
http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=H_huv58MGYE&feature=relatedand this longer clip offers an interseting perspective on what made the IL2 an effective attack ac
http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=Yr7C3YawF5kThe Il-2 was capable of carrying 280 2.5 kg bombs immediately on the bomb-bay folds, or 4x48 in four cassettes.
The PTAB 2.5 was capable of penetrating 60 to 70 millimeter tank armor, sufficient at the time even for the top-armor of heavy tanks.
here are a bunch being deployed from a Yak 9B
The design has not changed much over the last 70years Russians were still using them in Afghanistan in an anti personnel role.
The antitank bomb PTAB 2.5-1.5
Despite some successes in gun armament, the main tool in the fight against the German tanks, beginning in 1943, became an anti-bomb cumulative effect of weighing 1.5 kg in size facing the Air Force spacecraft bombs weighing 2.5 kg: PTAB-2, 5 -1.5. The new bomb was developed in the CDB-22 under the guidance of IA Larionov.
The action of the new bomb was as follows. Upon impact, the armor of the tank breakdowns fuze, which, through tetrilovuyu detonatornuyu piece caused the detonation of an explosive charge. The detonation of the charge, thanks to the cumulative funnel and a metal cone in it, was built jet stream, which, as shown by field tests, break armor thickness and 60 mm at an angle of 30 degrees with a meeting followed by destructive influence of armor: the defeat of the tank crew, the initiation of detonation of munitions and ignition of fuel or vapors.
The minimum height that provides alignment to bomb a meeting with the surface of the armor of the tank and reliability of its operation, was 70 m.
In charging the bombing of the IL-2 consisted of up to 192 bombs PTAB-2 ,5-1, 5, 4 cassettes small bombs (for 48 pieces each) or up to 220 pieces in their rational distribution of bulk in the 4-bom-bootsekah .
By dropping PTAB with a height of 200 m in horizontal flight when the flight speed 340-360 km / h one bomb fell into an area equal to the average 15 square meters, with, depending on the bomb load, the total area occupied by the strip breaks 15x (190 -210) m, which provided almost guaranteed defeat being in this band of any tank Wehrmacht. The fact that the area occupied by a tank, was of the order of 20-22 m, and hit at least one bomb in the tank was quite sufficient to remove him out of action, in most cases irreversibly.
Thus, the PTAB was a pretty formidable weapon at the time. By the way, the chief designer of CKB-22 IA . Larionov for the creation of PTAB-2 ,5-1, 5, and fuse it to the BP-A in January 1944 he was awarded the Order of Lenin, and in 1946 was awarded the USSR State Prize.
On the first day of the battle of Kursk, July 5, 1943, the Red Army Air Force first used the anti-bomb cumulative effect of PTAB-2 ,5-1, 5. The first bomb tested the new pilots of the 2nd Guards and 299th assault air divisions of the 16th VA, acting against the German tanks at the site of Art. Here the enemy tanks and motorized infantry held during the day to 10 attacks.
Mass application PTAB had stunning effect tactical surprise and had a strong moral influence on the enemy. German tank crews, however, as the Soviets, for the third year of the war have become accustomed to the relatively low efficiency bomboshturmovyh air strikes. Therefore, the first battle the Germans did not apply pre-combat scattered marching orders and then have to route traffic in convoys in areas of concentration and the initial positions, for which he was severely punished - the band dispersion PTAB 3.2 overlaps the tank, a remote from each other by 60-75 m, resulting in heavy losses suffered last, even in the absence of massive use of IL-2.
So, the pilots only one 291st Shad Colonel AN Витрука 2-й ВА, Vitruk 2nd VA, using the bombs, destroyed and put out of commission for 5 July to 30 German tanks.
Pilot-attack aircraft of the 3rd and 9th of mixed air corps of the 17th VA by the end of July 6 reported the destruction of or damage to the PTAB to 90 armored vehicles on the battlefield and in the vicinity of crossings r.Severny Donets.
On July 7 Oboyan towards IL-2 1 Shack 2 nd VA, supporting the 3rd Mechanized Corps of the 1st Panzer Army, from 4:40 to 6:40 am the two groups of 46 and 33 aircraft with the support of 66 fighters made a concentrated accumulation of blows to the enemy tanks to their original positions in the Syrtsevo-Yakovlevo concentrated for the attack in the direction of the Red Dubrava (300-350 tanks), and Large beacons (100 tanks).
Beat 1st Shack and proactive 3rd Mechanized Corps were unsuccessful: the Germans could not break through the second line of defense in the middle of the 1st TA. Deciphering photographs of the battlefield at 13:15 showed the presence of more than 200 shot down by German tanks and assault guns.
According to German data which has undergone during the day several massive strikes bomboshturmovym storm troopers of the 2nd Air Army 3rd SS Panzer Division "Totenkopf" in the Big Beacons lost a total of 270 tanks, armored personnel carriers and ACS. Density covering the bombs was that was recorded over 2000 (!) Direct hits PTAB-2 ,5-1, 5.
After recovering from the shock of the German tank crews after a few days after the start of the battle shifted exclusively to the march dispersed and pre-combat orders. Naturally, it is very difficult management armored units and departments, has increased the timing of their deployment, redeployment and concentration, complicated interactions between them. The effectiveness of IL-2 strikes with PTAB declined by about 4-4.5 times, remaining, however, an average of 2-3 times higher than when using high-explosive and high-explosive bombs.
Appologies and Kudos to Google translater.
