Stalingrad-Berlin
Shturmoviks of 59th GvShAP in a movie of 1945
By Massimo Tessitori
File updated on February 8, 2014
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Here are some words from an interview to Boreiko, a veteran of 59th GvShAP:

In our division there were four regiments… Yellow bandages over fuselage. 79th — four bandages. 59th — 2. 58th had one bandage and yellow spinner. And a yellow cap at the fin on all airplanes of the regiment.

Insignias appeared when war ended. There was a film director Rom, he was sent to our division to make a movie “Victory”. We formed up and flew over Berlin. In some of the rear cabins there were moviemakers sitting instead of gunners. On the sides of our planes it was written: «Stalingrad-Berlin».
— That is, this insignia was for filming purposes only?
Yes, for making film only.
— When approximately did it happen?
In 1945… But after war ended…

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/pilots/boreiko/boreiko.htm

 

Here we see some screenshots from a movie of 1945, showing the planes of 59th GvShAP during takeoff with the Stalingrad-Berlin slogan painted on their sides.

As we can see, plane n.40 (the only one whose number is known, and subject of my drawing) looks a standard Il-2 of 1945.

The white slogan contrasts both with the yellow bands, both with the supposedly white outline of the fuselage star, perhaps darkened by smokes.

Plane n.40 looks the only one, or one of the few, without a light (yellow?) tip of the spinner.

Another detail of the rear fuselage and tail of the same plane. The star on the tail looks lighter than the one on the fuselage; the number 40 is somewhat lighter than it, perhaps painted yellow as the bands, and not parallel to the plane's axis. The top of the tail seems to have a cap, probably red.
The planes on the background show the same slogan and a yellow tip of the spinner. They wear both types of camouflage described on the templates of 1943 of NKAP.
Another image of n.40 from a different perspective.

It is unclear if the slogan was painted on one side or on both sides of the planes, but avavailable photos showing it are from the left side only.

These planes wore the slogan for the movie only, not in wartime.

Another screenshot from a movie shows the bort number of another plane, yellow (?) 26. It wears the other type of camouflage, and has the yellow tip of the spinner. The red star on fuselage is in a lower and mover forward position if compared with 'yellow 40'. The shadow proves that it is an arrow-winged plane.

A detail difficult to interpretate is the dark color of the cover of the grid behind the exhaust stacks. Perhaps it has been painted black, or perhaps the cover itself was removed leaving the grid visible and darkened by stain.

 

Another plane of the same unit, recognizable for the slogan and twin bands; the 'puzzle-like' contours of the camo on the right wing suggests that it was built in factory n.1; so, it could have had both wooden wings (if built before May 1944) or metal wings (if built later, that looks more likely).

Note the red wingtips and rudder/fin hats on both planes.

The tips of the elevators/stabilizers were red too.

The tips of the horizontal tail surfaces hadn't the red cap.

Plane n.32 shows red wingtips and cap too, but the spinner is fully white. Besides this one has the red cap overposed to the star on the tail.

The shape of the tail wheel fairing, the smaller size of the tail star and the camouflage with a lighter band on the rudder suggest a plane built in Zavod 18, instead of Zavod 1 as previous ones.

Images from Aviafilm via Vitaliy Timoshenko