Petlyakov Pe-2

National origin:- Soviet Union

Role:- Dive bomber

Manufacturer:- Plant No.22 (Kazan), Plant No.39 (Moscow), Plant No.124 (Kazan), Plant No.125 (Irkutsk)

Designer:- V.M. Petlyakov Design Bureau

First flight:- 22nd December 1939 (VI-100)

Introduction:- March 1941

Status:- Retired 1951 (Soviet Air Force), 1957 (Polish Air Force)

Produced:- December 1940 - December 1945

Number built:- 11,070 (+ 360 Pe-3)

Primary users:- Soviet Air Force; Polish Air Force, Czechoslovakian Air Force, Bulgarian Air Force

Variants:- Petlyakov Pe-3

Petlyakov Pe-2 'Pawn'

The Petlyakov Pe-2 was a Soviet dive bomber aircraft used during World War II. It was regarded as one of the best ground attack aircraft of the war and it was extremely successful in the roles of heavy fighter, reconnaissance and night fighter. It was one of the most important aircraft of World War II and was manufactured in greater numbers. It was fast, maneuverable and durable. Six captured Pe-2s were used by the Finnish Air Force during the Continuation War and given the unofficial nickname Pekka-Eemeli. It was also used well into the 1950's by various Communist nations and was given the NATO code name 'Buck'.

While the Pe-2 generally featured favorable flying characteristics when airborne, it took a good amount of force to pull the elevators up to get the plane rotated off the runway during takeoff. Russian night bombing missions often flew with female pilots and some of the women were not strong enough to get the airplane airborne by themselves. When such a situation occurred, the procedure was to have one of the crew get behind the pilot's seat and wrap her arms around the control wheel and help the pilot pull the wheel back. Once the aircraft was airborne, the crew member returned to her duties and the pilot continued to fly the plane without assistance. Its armament was clearly insufficient, however. The dorsal ShKAS machine gun was inadequate. It had a high rate of fire but it also had 48 ways of jamming. The ventral Berezin UB had a very limited field of view and at the beginning was unreliable too. To give more protection, another ShKAS was added that could be moved between sockets on both sides of the fuselage and, in emergency, the gunner could fire upwards, but in this case he had to be quite strong to keep it in his arms. To improve the bomber's defences, a dorsal Berezin UBT 12,7 mm was mounted. This modification was reported to increase the life expectancy of a Pe-2 from 20 sorties to 54.

Operational service

The aircraft didn't show its true potential until the end of 1941, after the Soviet Air Force had a chance to regroup against the intial German onslaught during the Winter. The Pe-2 quickly proved itself to be a highly capable aircraft, able to elude the Luftwaffe's interceptors and allowing their crews to develop great accuracy with their bombing.

The records of the 16th and 39th BAPs of the Western Front Air Force note that the Pe-2s crews had the greatest success in repelling the attacks of enemy fighters in June and July 1941. On 1 July, for example, six Pe-2s fended off attacks by four Messerschmitt Bf 109s, shooting down two of them. A week later a group of Pe-2s was attacked by four Bf 109 and again brought down two of the attackers. On both occasions the Petlyakovs suffered no losses. On southern front, a bombing mission against Ploesti, in Romania, of six Pe-2s, led by Capt. A. Tsurtsulin, was a great success: 552,150 lb of petroleum were burnt in the raid. The Romanian information agency claimed tha at least 100 Soviet planes had bombed Ploesti. A German pilot shot down by a Petlyakov over Bobruysk, Maj. A. Mudin of JG 51, affirmed that the Pe-2 was the best Soviet aircraft: 'It is a fast aircraft, with good armament, and it is dangerous to enemy fighters.' The Pe-2 regiments' operations were not always successful and the service pilots complained about insufficient defensive armament and survivability: there was a great risk of fire and insufficient armour protection, especially for the navigators and gunners. German pilots soon discovered the limited sighting angles of the ventral gun mounting and its poor reliability. The ammo belt of the UBT machine-gun often jammed after the first burst of fire when shooting in extreme positions.