Ilyushin Il-10

The Ilyushin Il-10 (Cyrillic Илью́шин Ил-10, NATO reporting name: "Beast") was a Soviet ground attack aircraft developed at the end of World War II by the Ilyushin construction bureau. It was also license-built in Czechoslovakia by Avia as the Avia B-33.

The airframe featured one engine, two-seat, monoplane, with a metal-covered frame. The plane was highly armoured. The front part of the fuselage, with the cockpit, was a shell of armour plates 4–8 mm thick; the thickest, 8 mm, were under the engine, there was no armour above the engine. The front windshield was made of armour glass 64 mm (2.5 in) thick. Also armoured were: the roof above the pilot, side window frames in the pilot's cab, the wall between crew seats, and the rear wall behind the cab.

Early Il-10s had two 23 mm VYa-23 autocannons and 2 7.62 mm ShKAS machine guns fixed in wings, and a 12.7 mm UBT machine gun in a rear gunner station. From 1947, the aircraft were armed with four NS-23 23 mm cannons in the wings and 20 mm B-20T cannon in a rear gunner station. The IL-10M had four 23 mm NR-23 cannons in wings and 20 mm B-20EN cannon in a rear gunner station. The normal bomb load was 400 kg, maximum load was 600 kg. This could be small fragmentation or anti-tank bomblets, put in bomb bays, or four 50–100 kg bombs in bomb bays and externally under wings, or two 200–250 kg bombs attached under wings. Apart from bombs, four unguided rockets RS-82 or RS-132 could be carried on rail launchers under wings.

Ilyushin Il-10 in The Hot War
The Soviet Union announced the beginning of the ground war phase of World War III when Ilyushin Il-2s and Ilyushin Il-10s roared over Fulda shooting up and bombing whatever they could. Gustav Hozzel recognized the sounds of the engine and told his wife to take shelter in the cellar while he headed to the Rathaus to enlist in the German Emergency Militia.