Axis remarked Il-2s

Planes remarked and flown by Germans and their allies

Updated on December 3, 2023

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Disclaimer:

this work collects a lot of photos from many sources, not always identified and mentioned.
If someone has rights on the images reproduced on this site, please don't feel hurted, email to me and I shall provide to remove or to credit them.

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Germans captured many Il2s in repairable or even flyable conditions, but after testing them, they were unfavorably impressed by their characteristics and never reutilized them, nor sold them to their allied.

 

An early Il-2 remarked by Germans: white spinner, black crosses, swastika and a number 2 on the rear fuselage, presumably yellow with black outline. Some white inscriptions are visible but not readable on the fin under the swastika. A yellow band seems vaguely visible behind the large fuselage cross.

It's presumable that the early green/light blue Soviet livery was preserved; the prop blades preserved their finish, unpainted on the front, black on the back apart for the unpainted root.

The plane is of early 1941 type, with metal wings of 1941; it is unclear if the rear fuselage was metallic or wooden. The gunsight seems removed, the tank behind the pilot's seat seems of the 'tall' type.

 

 

 

An interpretaton of this plane. The rear of fuselage was supposed metallic. The inscriptions on the tail were omitted because unreadable. The number could be yellow or of a darker color, with black outline, but the image of the number looks unclear, perhaps panipulated in its lower part.

Click on the profile to see a larger 3 views drawing.

Artwork made for the book on Il-2 of Jason Moore.

 

 

 

Another early Il-2 in German marks. Black crosses are visible on standard positions, but the swastika is not visible on the tail, or perhaps it was painted without the usual white outline.

A yellow band is clearly visible on the rear fuselage; probably the wingtips undersurfaces were painted yellow too. The spinner looks white, but it could also be yellow, appearing lighter than the band due to the frontal illumination.

The plane is of early 1941 type, with metal wings of 1941; its rear fuselage looks wooden because of the different shade of blue between it and the metallic tail fillet. The armament looks to have been removed.

 

 

 

An interpretation of this plane.

Click on the profile to see a larger 3 views drawing.

Artwork made for the book on Il-2 of Jason Moore.

 

 

 

 

The first photo show two planes painted in a light color, almost surely yellow to avoid the strong risk of friendly fire.

The first plane has the rare 4-stacks exhaust pipes briefly built by Zavod 1 at the beginning of 1942. It seems that the canopy frames were still with the original green, and the propeller with the original black, or repainted in black green RLM-70 as for German use.

 

 

 

 

It's unclear if the second, third and fourth photos represent the closer plane with green frames repainted yellow, or the plane on the background, however it has the same style of exhaust stacks.

The wing is of the wooden type, as characteristic of the planes produced in Zavod 1 and confirmed by the absence of balance horns on the wingtips; the fairing of the gun is typical of the wings built for the VYa-23 gun, but the smaller barrel suggest that the plane was armed with ShVAK 20 mm ones, probably for shortage of the bigger guns.

 

 

 

 

 

The third and the fourth photos show the plane in degraded conditions, with many damages; the chipping yellow paint let see the underlying black-green camouflage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An interpretation of this plane traced for the book on Il-2 by Jason Moore.

Click on the profile to see a larger 3 views drawing.

 

 

Red/white 4 is the best photographically documented Il-2 remarked by Germans.

The first photos represent it still in Soviet marks, and are an excellent document of one of the variants of the black-green camo utilized by Zavod 18. The red star with thin white border on the tail is typical of Zavod 18 too, while the black outline of the star on the fuselage (instead of white) is unusual.

The wing is metallic, as typical of this factory, has balance horns at its tip and the fairings of the VYa-23 guns (whose barrels are not visible because the weapons were removed).

The first image suggests that it could have a curved-type aiming device on the left side of the nose, but this don't appear in other photos.

 

 

 

 

 

The following images show the plane in full German marks, with yellow band on the fuselage (and presumably under the wingtips). The strange inclination of the swastika on the tail and of the crosses on the fuselage is noteworthy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The latest image shows the plane with the guns reinstalled on the wings by Germans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawing of the plane in full German markings.

Click on the profile to see a wider 3-views drawing.

Artwork made for the book on Il-2 by Jason Moore.

 

 

Hungarian captured Il-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image of an Il-2 captured by Humgarians. It was a model of early 1942, with the wooden fuselage streghtened by four fasteners. The black amoeba still visible on the tail suggests that the plane was built in Zavod 18, and had metallic wings. Strangely, the red stars hadn't any thin white outline that were typical of the production of Zavod 18 from mid 1941 to the summer of 1943.

Photo from Winkler archive, via Stefan Vadasz.

 

The same plane after having ben remarked. Hungarian marking appear still uncomplete, only a white band was painted on the tail to cover rte red stars; the colrful tail and the yellow recognition bands drawn on profiles from many sources are missing, but one can suppose they were added later because it was too dangerous to fly such a plane without very evident Hungarian markings.

 

 

Given the lack of data, the profile represents an artist's interpretation of how the plane could have appeared when flown by an Hungarian pilot. A third color could have been added to the camouflage to better match Hungarian planes.

Click on the profile to see a larger 3 views drawing.

Artwork made for the book on Il-2 by Jason Moore.