IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

Dear Friends,

We're preparing another huge update 5.101 this month. It will bring the Pilot's Career mode and updated Western Front WWI map for Flying Circus Vol.I and Vol.II...



...thus making possible the official release of Flying Circus Vol.II.



The new Collector Plane Spitfire Mk.XIVe with teardrop canopy will be released as well.



The new historical campaign will be added in this update for free for all Battle of Normandy owners - Wings over Caen! Become a Typhoon pilot and do your part in the battle of Caen!



In addition to the new content, the update will bring numerous improvements and fixes, as always. Keep an eye on our news feed - 5.101 is coming soon!

Spring Sale
The annual Spring Sale has started and we offer big discounts on all released content. Don't miss the great opportunity to get 10 late war aircraft including P-38 for just $15.99 by purchasing Bodenplatte Premium Edition on our website! The historical campaign Lightning Strikes is the longest in the game (25 missions!) and it is free for all players who own the P-38 and Rhineland map that is included in Bodenplatte!

Battle of Bodenplatte – 80% OFF for the first time ever!

Battle of Normandy – 25% OFF

Flying Circus Volume I – 70% OFF
Includes two single-player campaigns and the new Western Front map, Career mode is coming this month!

Tank Crew Deluxe Edition – 83% OFF
Includes two single-player campaigns, 14 (!) player controllable combat vehicles and Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Kuban – 75% OFF
Includes Sea Dragons single-player campaign

Battle of Moscow – 75% OFF

Battle of Stalingrad – 75% OFF

All Rise of Flight Content – 75% OFF

Collector Planes and Vehicles
Arado Ar 234 B-2 Jet Recon/Bomber – 30% OFF for the first time ever!

Spitfire Mk.XIV – 30% OFF for the first time ever!

C-47A Skytrain – 30% OFF for the first time ever!

Sopwith Snipe – 25% OFF for the first time ever!

P-40 – 80% OFF

MC.202 – 80% OFF

Hs 129 – 80% OFF

P-38J-25 – 66% OFF
A free campaign is available for owners of this aircraft and Bodenplatte!

Fw 190 D-9 – 66% OFF

Hurricane MK.II – 66% OFF

Spitfire Mk.VB – 75% OFF

Yak-9 – 66% OFF

Yak-9T – 66% OFF

Yak-1b – 75% OFF
With a female pilot option!

U-2VS – 75% OFF
With female crew option!

Bf 109 G-6 – 75% OFF

Ju 52 – 70% OFF

La-5FN – 66% OFF

GAZ-MM 72-K (25mm) Mobile AA Gun – 75% OFF for the first time ever!

Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38 (20mm) Mobile AA Gun – 75% OFF for the first time ever!

Churchill IV – 25% OFF

StuG III Ausf. G Assault Gun – 25% OFF

Campaigns
Steel Birds Scripted Campaign – 40% OFF

Ice Ring Scripted Campaign – 66% OFF

All other campaigns – 75% OFF

NOTE: having at least the base game (Stalingrad) on Steam means you can launch it from Steam without entering a login and password and access your IL-2 content purchased elsewhere if you link the accounts.

See you in the skies!

The Sturmovik Team

[h3]Dear Friends,[/h3]

Our project had received numerous improvements in the recent months, including the customizable tactical numbers for aircraft and ground vehicles in all game modes. Since we always strive to upgrade the existing content of the sim using the new features, we’re going to update the existing payware and free campaigns and share some of our plans on the new ones.

[h3]EXISTING PAYWARE CAMPAIGNS[/h3]
Ten Days of Autumn (Bf 109 F-2, Moscow):

it will be reworked to correspond to the modern IL-2 standards;
the amount of aircraft and ground vehicles in the missions will be increased by 30%;
all aircraft will have accurate tactical numbers;
we’re evaluating the possibility to offer this campaign on Steam.
Battle of Stalingrad campaigns: Blazing Steppe (Yak-1 Series 69), Fortress on the Volga (Bf 109 G-2) and Ice Ring (IL-2 mod. 1942):

the amount of aircraft and ground vehicles in most of the missions will be increased by 15-20%;
all aircraft will have accurate tactical numbers;
there will be additional fixes and tuning.
You’ll get these improvements in the coming update. And since there is always room for perfection, once IAR-80/81 and not yet announced collector aircraft are released they are likely to be added to these campaigns as AI units.



Steel Birds (Fw 190 A-5, Kuban):

The updated campaign has been released in November 2022 and became available on Steam - the current version is up-to-date and includes accurate tactical numbers.



In case you don’t own them yet, they’re always available for purchase at our website and on Steam.

[h3]PLANNED CAMPAIGNS[/h3]
Soviet Fighter Campaign (Yak-7b series 36, Kuban)

It will be dedicated to the 43rd IAP (Fighter Air Regiment) of the 278th Fighter Air Division of Major General Savitsky's 3rd Fighter Air Corps and will unfold during the decisive phase of the spring battle of Kuban. The release is planned later this year.

Other possibilities

There are several options on the table: Bf 109 F-4 or La-5 on Stalingrad map, Bf 109 G-4 (Kuban), Fw 190 A-8 (Rhineland) and Mustang Mk.III (Р-51B) on Normandy map. One or more of them will be selected after the Kuban campaign.

[h3]FREE CAMPAIGNS[/h3]
Rhineland map campaigns - Wind of Fury (Tempest Mk.V) and His Majesty's Griffons (Spitfire Mk.XIV):

all aircraft will have accurate tactical numbers;
all US vehicles will be replaced with British ones in the British held area (they didn’t exist in the game at the time of release of these campaigns).
Sea Dragons (IL-2 AM-38F M1943, Kuban):

it will be reworked to correspond to the modern IL-2 standards;
all aircraft will have accurate tactical numbers;
numerous AI-controlled aircraft will be added: U-2, A-20, P-39, Yak-7b, Yak-9 and C-47A (they didn’t exist in the game at the time of release).
Tank campaigns – Breakpoint and Last Chance:

all aircraft will have accurate tactical numbers (ground vehicles already got them);
recently released collector vehicles will be added as AI units: Churchills Mk.IV, StuG III Ausf.G SPGs and AAA vehicles.
Wings Over Caen (Typhoon Mk.Ib, Normandy):

all aircraft will have accurate tactical numbers on release. Battle of Normandy owners will get this campaign in the coming update (by the way, beta tester feedback is very favourable so far).



IL-2 Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends,,

Today we have more news about the next update 5.101. Among other things, it will bring the Pilot Career mode for the Flying Circus Vol. II, which will mark its official release. We start the beta-testing of the Career today while our partners at Yugra Media plan to complete the fine-tuning and debugging of the map by the end of the month.



The Career mode is the last piece of the puzzle that the Flying Circus project was missing in order to fully reproduce the set of game features that were available in our old World War I project Rise of Flight. Simultaneously, we are also negotiating with Yugra Media about the continuation of the Flying Circus series. Our goal is to fully reproduce the aircraft set and the Rise of Flight map in the modern engine. We are hoping for a positive outcome and your support, since the player interest primarily affects our decisions.



Flying Circus not only reproduces Rise of Flight in the Great Battles game world, but also brings many innovations that we have developed over the past decade. In addition to the obvious things like better visual model quality, there are a number of additions such as possibility to bail out, oxygen equipment, machine gun jamming when overheated, custom tactical numbers and other nice additions that make flying a World War I airplane much more believable and impressive. The Western Front map presented in Flying Circus Vol.II reproduces the features of the landscape in more detail and contains a number of infrastructure and military facilities that were missing in Rise of Flight. The work is at the final stage and should be completed by the beginning of March.



Now let’s look at the details of the new mode. WWI Career will contain two phases:

1. From April 1st till September 30th, 1917.
2. From April 1st till November 11th, 1918.

In contrast to the Rise of Flight, there is no winter of 1917-1918 because Vol.II has only one season so far (it will be made continuous in Vol. III if it is created).



In the two main areas completed on the Vol. II stage map, the career mode will use 105 airfields for the player's flights. In comparison to the Rise of Flight, the airfields in these squares were significantly refined. The player will be able to join 9 French, 15 British, 6 American and 12 German squadrons (total 42). Among them, of course, there will be the famous La Fayette, No. 56 Squadron, 94th Aero Squadron, Jasta Boelcke and Jasta 11.



At the moment, World War I career mode has 17 types of missions and it takes advantage of all the improvements which have been developed by us over the past ten years after Rise of Flight. Starting next week, the work will begin on missions unique to the Great War, such as Balloon Hunt, Photo Recon, Artillery Fire Adjustment and Visual Recon, which we plan to complete by the project release.



To summarize, Flying Circus Vol. II is in the final stages of development and its release should happen really soon. Stay tuned!

IL-2 Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends,

Since the release of Battle of Kuban we are striving to release the free historical campaigns that augment the single missions and Career mode in our modules whenever time and resources allow.

Today we want to tell you about the campaign ‘Wings over Caen’ - it will be released in the near future and will be free for all Battle of Normandy owners. This historical campaign is dedicated to the operations of the No. 245 Squadron RAF which has been using Typhoon Mk.Ib fighter/bombers.



Historical Background

One of the primary objectives of the 3rd British Infantry Division, which was part of I Corps and landed at Sword Beach on D-Day, was to capture the city of Caen. However, they did not succeed in this either on June 6 nor the following days. Gradually, the German command turned Caen into the cornerstone of its entire defense in Normandy, where the majority of reinforcements were thrown in. The battle for the city dragged on for more than a month and a half, seriously slowing down the advance of the Allied forces in the British sector.

The central role in close air support for British and Canadian forces was to be played by the four Typhoon armed wings of the 2ndTactical Air Force: Nos. 123, 124, 143 and 121. The latter included the 245th squadron which was engaged at the very tip of the advance.



No. 245 (Northern Rhodesia) Squadron, Royal Air Force

The squadron was originally formed in August 1918 and re-formed in October 1939. Using Hurricanes, it participated in the Dunkirk evacuation, served as an AA defence unit and provided air cover for sea convoys. Since September 1941 it operated in the skies of the northern France.

In January 1943 the squadron received Typhoons and in June has been assigned to the 2ndTactical Air Force. During the invasion preparations it continued the airstrikes against the enemy communications in northern France, rejecting the bombs in favor of the unguided rockets.

After two weeks of the Normandy landings the squadron has been ordered to move to the continent, but then all kinds of things went wrong. Our campaign starts right at this point and covers the most fierce fighting for Caen since June 27th to July 27th,1944.

Story

All the missions of the campaign were created using the real operation records of the 245th, the other squadrons of the 121st wing and other units, allowing you to experience the sufficiently authentic of the events.

No. 121 Wing Typhoons have been assigned four main tasks during this timeframe:

. Suppression of the AA, AT and other artillery batteries;

. Destruction of enemy transport and armored vehicles both in road columns and on the battlefield;

. Airstrikes against the enemy strongpoints;

. Free hunt against the enemy road and railroad traffic not far behind the frontline.

During the campaign you’ll have the chance to try your hand in all of them, providing support for the main operations of the British High Command near Caen. The sorties will have different weather conditions, time of day and battlefield smoke, recreating the real difficulties the Typhoon pilots had to overcome in addition to the fire from the ground and rare enemy fighters.



With this work we would like to pay respects to all RAF and U.S. Air Force veterans who were fighting in the Normandy skies and to Squadron Leader John Russell Collins in particular.

He commanded the unit skillfully, made it a force to be reckoned with and personally led it into combat on numerous especially dangerous occasions. Unfortunately, on August 11th, 1944, during the last mission in the operative cycle before the planned rest, his Typhoon was hit by enemy AAA and he was killed.

In the campaign you’ll be acting under his command and see his Typhoon designated MR+? in several missions.



P.S. We would like to thank Luke =LukeFF= Wallace for valuable input and help with research and all our beta-testers and translators who make the regular and timely campaign releases possible.



IL-2 Sturmovik Team

Operation Overlord is larger than any other amphibious operation in history. Tremendous action, coordinated work of an incredible number of people. A genuine act of valor in terms of logistics and planning.

Only on the first day of the landing, June 6, more than 132 thousand soldiers were transferred from the British Isles to the mainland by sea and 24 thousand by air. Nearly 7,000 ships were involved in delivering the forces to the shore. Fire support from the sea was provided by an entire armada of warships, which included five battleships, twelve cruisers, sixty-five destroyers, and two monitors.


Usually, when the Overlord is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is infantry breaking through the hell of machine-gun fire on Omaha Beach, or paratroopers wandering in bocages in the darkness of the night. This image was formed thanks to movies and video games. However, the landing in Normandy is also an air operation of colossal proportions. More than ten thousand aircraft were involved in it: transports, reconnaissance aircraft, bombers, fighters, communications aircraft, and others. On the first day of operation Overlord alone (D-Day as it is known in popular culture), Allied forces flew 14,674 sorties.

It will be possible to take part in these historical events and look at burning Normandy from the aircraft cockpit in the new add-on for the Il-2: Sturmovik game.


At the player’s disposal is a map measuring 346 by 311 kilometers (the area, therefore, is almost 108 thousand square kilometers), on which there are about a hundred unique airfields. The British coast, a significant piece of Normandy, and the strait between them are completely accessible for flights. Chronologically, the career mode covers the period from April 15 to August 22, 1944. That is, it will be possible to take part in preparations for the landing, and in D-Day itself, and in subsequent battles until the actual completion of the Normandy operation, and the assault of allied troops deep into the continent. The situation at the front and the appearance of the terrain will change as the game time moves in accordance with how real historical events developed. For example, flying over the beaches after landing, you will notice how temporary wharves are being built on them to help the transfer of the bulk of the troops. The weather also, where possible, repeats the real one, according to archival data. In other words, the game offers the maximum historically reliable immersion in the era, achievable with the currently existing technologies.


You can play as an American, British, or German pilot and choose from a large number of real-life squadrons that took part in the Normandy operation. You can choose an ordinary pilot who is responsible only for himself and his crew, or become a flight commander and get virtual subordinates at your disposal. In addition to the already familiar types of objectives, such as intercepting enemy aircraft, escorting your own, and bombing targets, there will be new ones that have never been seen in Sturmovik before.

Eight new aircraft (plus two premium ones) will be available for piloting. It might seem to be not much, but it should be borne in mind that in the modern Sturmovik some modifications of the aircraft are considered variants of the same model and are switched in the vehicle settings, right in the hangar. In other words, in some other flight simulators, and even in the classic Sturmovik of the 2000s, this set would be considered two or even three dozen aircraft.

If you’ve read this far, it means you’re interested. And, probably, the only question that remains: “Will I be able to try all this splendor if I am a beginner?” The doubts are understandable: realistic flight simulators are complex entertainment, and according to some, even elitist one. But this is not about Sturmovik. The first game, released back in 2000, allowed a person with any degree of training to enjoy the game in full. The modern version completely inherited this part and even expanded it a little. Are you afraid to get tangled in the trimmers, set the wrong propeller pitch, or forget to open the radiator shutters? Or maybe you don’t even know what it is? In the difficulty settings, there are virtual assistants who will take care of this and much more on their own. No joystick and throttle lever? Not a problem at all! There is a control mode for the mouse and keyboard. And those who are complete beginners and do not want any difficulties, or just want to shoot beautifully at airplanes, can even turn on “legal cheats” like endless ammunition, endless fuel, and even complete invulnerability of the aircraft. Everyone can customize the game for themselves and change these settings at any time if they want something simpler or vice versa, closer to reality.

If you already play Il-2 Sturmovik, then Battle of Normandy is a great acquisition that will expand the game with both a new career and a new map for other modes. If you are just going to try, then this add-on can be an excellent entry point. After all, combat aircraft over the expanses of Northern France look amazingly beautiful.

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