I-153 main gear question for tech savvies here

[McHilt]

Iirc in Il-2 it was manually operated (don't know if one can consider that the most reliable source though), however an airshow movie on YT shows a chaika taking off... you can see the gear retracting very quickly which might suggest it was indeed operated pneumatically (if the bird is restored in original configuration that is).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BLVI2yBRX8

btw you gotta love the sound of that radial engine