The Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik was quite possibly one of the greatest ground attack/Close Air Support aircraft of World War Two. The shturmovik flew over Russian troops and laid down fire from their deadly arsenal on German troops. The Il-2 was famous for its toughness, maintainability and firepower. The Il-2 fought with two wing mounted cannon, two machine guns mounted on a rear turret, eight rockets and 880 lbs of bombs.
CAS is a hard thing to because the plane recieves fire from both the ground and air, and must make slow attack runs. Losses were high from Luftwaffefighters. The Luftwaffe even trained entire squadrons to hunt only Il-2s. Flying the Il-2 was so dangerous, in fact, that pilots were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union award, the highest possible award for valor, after only 10 combat missions. For all other pilots, it took 100 missions.