Attack plane which was afraid Wehrmacht

While America and the Pacific region are going to celebrate on September 2 anniversary of the termination of the Second World War, the European newspapers write again on the front pages about fascinating finds of military times. In the center of attention there is Poland. After all a few days ago in the town of Walbrzych (Walbrzych) in the Bottom Silesia the German armored train was found, numerous new finds were presented by Vistula and one of its inflows: Jewish gravestones, fragments of the old bridge and case of the Soviet military plane.

The reason of detection of finds was extremely low water level in Vistula – record-breaking low since the beginning of measurements at the end of the XVIII century. Same concerns also Bzura – one of inflows of Vistula in the central part of the country. Exactly there from water plane fragments unexpectedly seemed. Its lifting was assumed by employees of a museum of the city of Vyshogruda (Wyszogrod).

According to the head of a museum Zdzhislav of Leshchinsky (Zdzislaw Leszczynski), it managed to talk to inhabitants of those places who remember heavy fighting in recent months wars and which told it that Germans brought down this plane in January, 1945. Having fallen, the plane failed under ice. It was the attack plane Il-2 – one of the most mass models. In total about 35 thousand cars of this type were constructed.

On January 12, 1945 the Red army began offensive operation on German East front in which about 2,2 million soldiers took part. Though Wehrmacht command also expected it and, having at the order only 450 thousand soldiers and nearly one hundred tanks, did not feed illusions concerning an outcome of being coming fights, but did not accept measures for retreat preparation. Instead mass flight of the civilian population in which tens of thousands of people took part, however, began. Within only several days the front "failed".

In the middle of January on Bzura’s coast heavy fighting in which the Red army as a result managed to get the best began. On January 17 all territory appeared under control of the Soviet armies. More than five years ago, in September, 1939, Wehrmacht, having begun war against Poland, exactly here achieved solving successes. In the same day of a part of Red army occupied the country East.

Silt-2 found in Bzura, is the double updating made since 1942. Planes of this model developed in the mid-thirties, were used for support of land operations. Silt-2 had the powerful reservation and was armed with guns, machine guns and rockets. Most the cumulative bombs completed in cartridges which could punch the reservation of heavy German tanks were its dangerous weapon.

In Germany Il-2 received a nickname «Iron Gustav» because his reservation could sustain attack even from an automatic gun. At the same time, this single-motor plane was heavy and slow, gathering speed of 400 km/h at height of 1500 meters at range of flight in 765 kilometers. Without support from the fighters Il-2 practically had no chances to leave from German "Messershmittov" and "Fokke-Vulfov".

Among cars of single updating which in 1941 and 1942 inexperienced pilots often operated, losses were huge. Despite every possible improvements, at the end of war the Red army lost more than 23 thousand planes of this type. Nearly eight thousand pilots thus were lost. Till our times some copies Il-2 remained.

Both crew members operating plane, fallen in Bzura, were lost. The representative of the Russian embassy told that, probably, they will manage to be identified according to number of the plane and to bury with the corresponding honors. Separate elements of the equipment of the plane – one gun, a handheld transceiver and ammunition – already sent for examination in a vyshogrudsky museum. Soon there will send also other elements.

But it not the unique finds "released" now by Vistula. The Jewish gravestones found in recent days, according to experts, once stood on Brodno’s cemetery in Warsaw where remains of 300 thousand Jews were based. Now there are only about three thousand gravestones. The others were used during time and after war as a construction material or for the purpose of strengthening of coast of Vistula.

«Vistula hides in itself an infinite set of secrets», the head of the Jewish fund Johnny Daniels (Johnny Daniels) told, during walk on the river bank. Recently in Vistula from water fragments of the bridge which has been blown up by soldiers of Wehrmacht during retreat in 1944 seemed.

Florean Shtark