ORIGINAL: TheElf
Does anyone know for sure what the Russian mine/torpedo capability/potential was? I've seen IL-2s in the IL-2 STURMOVIK that carry Torps, but I think that may have been a special variant.
They used Il-4 for torpedo attacks and mining. Il-4 used two torpedoes (don't remember exact names, will check after work). Low altitude and high altitude variants (this one was launched from 600-1800 m and than ran in circles in hope to hit something). Later they modified all high altitude launched ones into low altitude due to poor performance of the former. Il-4 was very unstable on the low-level torpedo runs, and had no automatics (very tiring to fly) so result were mixed.
Later they got A-20 through lend-lease, and used them for torpedo attacks. Another lend lease a/c used by Naval aviation was B-25, but i think they didn't carried torpedo. Catalinas were used on Northern Fleet by they carried no torpedoes to increase endurance. They modified Il-2 for torpedo attacks by removing cannons and some of the armour, still performance was low and numbers built were few. They achieved much better results with standard Il-2M3. Theoretically Tu-2 was able to carry torpedo but was never used as such.
Organizationally they were formed in "minno-torpedniy avia-polk" mine-torpedo air regiments of Soviet Navy. Most active of course were regiments of the Northern fleet 1941-1945, Baltic fleet 1944-1945, and Black sea fleet 1941-1944. Again without my book I cant give you exact composition in the Far East, but if memory serves me well, Soviet Union had 1 or 2 of those regiments attached to Pacific Fleet. Overall Soviets expended around 1000 air-launched torpedoes during the war, and Far East Command had something like 60 of them during the course of WW2.
