Petlyakov Pe-2
The Pe-2 was the Soviets’ most produced twin-engine aircraft of WWII, with 11,427 built. A fast, maneuverable, and resilient aircraft, it performed functions similar to the better known British Mosquito. Versatile, it proved itself in a variety of tasks: in addition to their main role as light bombers, Pe-2s were also successful in reconnaissance, heavy fighter, and night fighter assignments.
Initially designed in prison as a fighter by the aeronautical engineer Vladimir Petlyakov, who had been swept into the gulag during Stalin’s purges and was highly motivated to earn a pardon, the plane was advanced for its day. Prototypes flew in late 1939, and Petlyakov and his design team got to see their plane from the roof of their prison as it flew for the crowds outside during the 1940 May Day parade. However, impressed by the German blitzkreig, the Red Air Force changed its mind as it saw a greater need for dive bombers, and ordered Petylakov to change his design from a fighter to a dive bomber, giving him 45 days to do so. Petlyakov did so, and a pleased Stalin ordered him freed.
The first Pe-2s entered service in the spring of 1941, but most were destroyed in the early days of Operation Barbarossa. However, by late 1941, when the German advance was finally halted and the Soviets regrouped, Pe-2s began proving themselves as elusive and highly accurate light bombers. Unique among WWII belligerents, the Soviets made significant use of women in combat, and many Pe-2s were flown by females, while various Pe-2 squadrons were commanded by women.
Pe-2 squadrons frequently devastated German supply and troop convoys by first destroying the lead vehicles to block the road, working over the rest of the stalled column, then fleeing before German fighters arrived. Another favored tactic was known as the “Carousel”, in which Pe-2s circled a target, making repeated diving attacks until they ran out of munitions or were forced to scatter by the arrival of German fighter protection. However, as the war progressed, the Soviets began to wrest aerial supremacy and Pe-2s came to operate under an increasingly effective umbrella of Soviet fighters. Pe-2s played a significant role from late 1941 onwards, from the Battle of Moscow, to Stalingrad, to Kursk, and helped pave the way for the Soviet juggernaut as it rolled to Berlin.