As early as the 1930s, the Soviet Army considered the possibility of a ground attack aircraft to be a potential key asset. This plan was put into motion in 1938 after the Ilyushin bureau submitted the design that would later be known as the Ilyushin IL-2. The IL-2 then entered a design contest against Sukhoi’s Su-6, with the former winning the contract in 1939 due to its reliability.

Being designed to carry a heavy 23 mm Volkov-Yartsev VYa-23 autocannon (although not mounted on the earliest production model, as it had not yet entered production) as well as an armoured cockpit, the IL-2 was severely overloaded and underpowered. However, it was noted to be surprisingly agile while being highly survivable. As a result, the IL-2 was widely used during World War II, to the point that the Russian word for its ground-attack role “Sturmovik” became a byword for the aircraft itself. In total, 36,183 IL-2s across all variants were built, making it the single most-produced military aircraft in history as well as the second most-produced aircraft of all time after the Cessna 172 Skyhawk civilian aircraft.

Introduced in Update 1.47 "Big Guns", the IL-2 (1941) is the first of the famous “Sturmovik” aircraft a pilot will get in the Soviet aircraft tree. Players will quickly find that this plane is very durable but somewhat slow and unwieldy, although with some skill this plane can surprise attacking enemies due to its surprisingly good turn rate. Being the earliest production variant, the IL-2 (1941) lacks a defensive gunner and is “only” equipped with two 20 mm ShVAK autocannons, which pale in comparison to the famous 23 mm VYa-23 found in later models, though it does still offer decent firepower against most planes at its BR.