Became PE-217 in Finnish service. Photo: SA-kuva (Finnish Armed Forces photograph, Wartime Photograph Archive). Photographer Niilo Helander.

Photo: SA-kuva (Finnish Armed Forces photograph, Wartime Photograph Archive). Photographer Olavi Linnus.

One of the museum curators saw me taking pictures of all the aircraft (and tanks!) and so we were talking for some time. I told him that I really enjoyed photographing and finding out about old aeroplanes. With this he beckoned me to the Pe-2 and pulled down the crew entry hatch and let me view the cockpit, after which he let me see the ventral gunner's position. My head is poking through a tiny little hatch and it is awful to imagine trying to escape though it when the plane is diving and on fire.

One of the museum curators saw me taking pictures of all the aircraft (and tanks!) and so we were talking for some time. I told him that I really enjoyed photographing and finding out about old aeroplanes. With this he beckoned me to the Pe-2 and pulled down the crew entry hatch and let me view the cockpit.

On display at the Polish Army museum. Prior to 1947 the Polish Air Force was not a separate entity, rather operated under the command of the Army. It is such a pity that this plane is unattributed.

Museum Wojska Polskiego (Polish Army Museum) in Warsaw. [Nikon D300 + Nikkor AF-S 35mm/1,8]

Not very well known, the Pe-2 Peshka light bomber was a major WWII aircraft nevertheless - some 11,500 examples were built.

This aircraft is part of the Polish Military Museum close to the centre of Warsaw. It carries no codes or serial. The Pe-2 was a Soviet built aircraft that first flew in 1940 and 11,400 of which were built. It was the most successful Soviet dive-bomber. What a pity that this gem of an aircraft is not under cover.

This aircraft took off from Vajenga near Murmansk 29-Mar-1943 to attack ships near Hamningberg on the Finnmark coast in Norway. It was shot down by a German fighter while attacking the ships and made a forced landing at the Kudalsfjellet near Hamningberg. In 1989 the wreck was recovered and later brought to the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum in Bodø for restoration. The cockpit section has been fullly restored. It carries a Gvardia badge