Petlyakov Pe-2

The Petlyakov Pe-2 is a Soviet twin-engine dive bomber and light bomber built by the Petlyakov design bureau, entering Soviet Air Force service in 1941 and becoming the most widely produced Soviet bomber of the Second World War. Built originally, in an earlier design iteration, as a high-altitude fighter before being redesigned as a fast bomber shortly before the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Pe-2 combined dive-bombing capability with a speed that let it evade many contemporary fighters, making it valuable for both precision attacks on tactical targets and for missions where survivability against enemy fighters mattered. The Pe-2 was produced in very large numbers throughout the war and became a mainstay of Soviet tactical bomber operations on the Eastern Front, contributing significantly to Soviet air support for ground offensives from 1942 onward.