Only a marginally later design than the
British Fairey Battle, the Soviet Sukhoi
Su-2, designed by Pavel Sukhoi, previously
of the Tupolev design bureau,
entered service with the V-VS early in
1941 but, as far as is known, was not
encountered during the Winter War
which ended the previous year. Derived
from Sukhoi's ANT-51 and designated
BB-1 during its early trials, the
aircraft was fairly efficient by current
standards once the M-87 engine had
been replaced by the M-88 and then
the M-88B. Tactical concepts changed
swiftly during the first two years of the
war, however, and the use by the Germans
of large forces of single-seat
fighters in support of their advancing
armies came as a body blow to the
Soviets in mid-1941. Despite being
further improved by installation of the
746kW M-88B radial, the
Su-2 was found to be desperately
vulnerable and virtually unable to defend
itself with its single small-calibre
machine-gun in the unwieldy manually-
operated dorsal turret. Estimates
suggest that about 100 were in service
with the Frontovaya Aviatsya at the
time that the German army rolled into
the Soviet Union m June 1941, but that
dozens were shot down by Flak and
fighters in the first few disastrous
weeks; moreover, such was the generally
poor standard of training in the
Soviet air force that the Su-2 proved
almost useless as a weapon against
mobile battlefield targets.
The parlous state of the Soviet aircraft
industry in 1941 prevented much
being done to remedy the immediate
lack of suitable ground support aircraft
(until production of the two-seat Il-2m3
could be stepped up) and recourse
was made to further attempts to improve
the Su-2 by installation of the
1134kW M-82 radial and
freguent deletion of the dorsal turret,
but with little tactical benefit. Accepting
that losses would remain high, the
Soviets therefore simply loaded the
aircraft with further bombs and rockets
on the supposition that the more
explosive delivered against the
enemy the better the chances of some
degree of success. This version, as
well as the completely redesigned Su-
6, were abandoned in favour of all-out
dependence on the Il-2m3. The Su-2
probably did not survive in production
beyond mid-1942.
