15th Air Force in the East
 

Hello reading about 15th AF I came along to some incidents, when 15th FG had "field days" over german aircraft operating in Poland, Hungary and Romania. Which Luftwaffe, romanian or hungarian units were involved and their real losses? What were the german names for the airfields?

1) On 25.07.44 307FS/31 FG claimed 27 Ju.87s and 1 unlucky Ju.52 encountering a Stuka Group over polish Mielec A/D on the return from mission FRANTIC III flying from Poltava A/D. Reportedly they were from Obstlt. Rudel´s SG.2. Total US losses on FRANTIC III were 10 P-51s and 20 P-38s.

2) On 29.08.44 and 31.08.44 4FS/ 52 FG claimed dozens of 100 Me.323 transports encountered on a czech airfield during a bomber escort mission in strafing attacks.

3) On 15.09.44 325 FG claimed 2 Ju.52s over Greece.

4) On 12.10.44 5 FS/ 52 FG strafed Seregeyles A/D in Hungary and claimed a lot of a/c on the ground as well 5 s/d in the air.

Thanks in advance

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Hello!

Not really my area of interest nor theme. Summarische Losses database of the Aviation History Norway site shows for I/SG77 8 planes and for II/SG77 1 plane destroyed by enemy a/c gunfire at July 25th, 1944. No mention of types. SG2 had no losses to enemy fighters that day.

Michael Holm's Lw site has 8 "Durch Feindeinwirkung" Ju 87D-5 losses for I/SG77 in July 1944: http://www.ww2.dk/oob/bestand/schlacht/bisg77.html I think these are the "27" Stukas. II/SG77 had only Fw 190s then.

Cheers,
Kari

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Some of those were Hungarian Stukas of the 102/2. Dive Bomber Squadron. Their losses were nowhere as high as the US claims were.
In total, eight Ju 87Ds of the Hungarian unit and I./StG 77 - whom the Hungarians were flying together with - were lost to the US raiders in the vicinity of Mielec. Other losses may have occurred to other Gruppen of StG 77.

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Here's the best study on 25 July 1944:

Chorążykiewicz, Przemysław. Warplanes Over Southeastern Poland. Part One: The Slaughter of Stukas on 25 July 1944. Przemyśl: privately published, 2004. ISBN: 83-921502-0-1. Pb. 181p. Heavily illustrated. Dwgs.

The author used all primary sources plus an exhaustive forensic investigation of all the crash sites. His findings are empirical.

L.

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Thank you well gentlemen,
my info was based on a booklet from Osprey of the aircraft of the aces series, not always reliable and I have to add (from Spitfires and Yellow tail Mustangs):
to 2) the attack of 52 FG took place on 30.08.44 against Kecskemet A/D (Hungary), where 24 e/a were claimed destroyed or damaged including 10 Me.323s. On 31.08.44 52 FG attacked airfields at Reglin (Romania), where 175 a/c had been reported of which 60+ were claimed destroyed on the ground plus 2-1-0 Fw.190s, 6-0-2 Bf.109s, 1-0-1 Do.217s in the air.
Thank you Larry for the literature hint.

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

That place was actually Szaszregen, located back then in Hungary. Reghin is the Rumanian version of the name and today the town is indeed in Rumania.

I wrote an extensive study on this particular event, published in several magazines in Hungary, Rumania and France. Incidentally, my late father witnessed the air combat between the "shiny" (US) and "dark" (German) airplanes as a child.

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Any idea which Czech airfield this might have been?

L.

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Below is for I./TG 5 but it includes aircraft from II./TG 5 also:

23 Aug 44: Stab with 1. – 3. Staffel at Kecskemét.[1]
25-28 Aug 44: took part in the air evacuation of German troops from Romania. The following summary of losses very likely includes figures for II./TG 5.On the first day (25 August?) one Me 323 landed near the city of Alba-Julia and the crew was taken prisoner. On 26 August two Me 323’s were shot down by Romanian fighters from Grupul 7; two Me 323’s were shot down by Romanian AA fire near Ploesti; and one Me 323 was damaged by mortar fire at Targsorul-Nou airfield. The next day, three Me 323’s were attacked by Romanian-flown Bf 109 fighters or AA fire with the following results: the first force landed at 0800 hours and 66 men were captured, the second also force landed and 81 men were captured, and the third crash landed and was burned out on the ground. On 27 August two Me 323’s were strafed by U.S. 15th AAF Mustangs on the ground at Prossnitz airfield near Olmütz and on 29 August five Me 323’s landed in the Bucharest area during the day while four others were captured on the ground in Romania with a total of 131 soldiers on board and one other managed to get away with only 31 soldiers evacuees.
28-30 Aug 44: now nearly wiped out, ordered to return to Germany and disband. Two of the Gruppe’s Staffeln with an allowance of 12 Me 323s were used in the formation of the re-established 16./TG 4 while the rest of the Gruppe went to the reorganized 15./TG 4.[2]
31.8.44 The German bases in Hungary and Czeckoslovakia was heavily strafed by Mustang fighters and a large number of aircraft including Me 323’s were destroyed.

[1] AFHRA Maxwell: decimal 512.619 British AirMin P/W interrogations, ADI(K) series, microfilm rolls A5400-05, interrogation ADI(K) 622/44.

[2] K.Kössler-wer kennt sie schon!: Die Kennzeichen der Transportfliegerverbände der Luftwaffe von 1937-1945.

Olmütz is Olomouc/64 km NW of Brünn (Brno) and Prossnitz is Prostějov/48 km NE of Brno. Was one of these the airfield being referred to?

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

Thank you all! Sorry for the late response, I was not at home.

Re: 15th Air Force in the East
 

To Denés, I think in the Mielec incident also III./SG.77 was involved as it was the only SG.77 unit still equipped with Ju.87s and lost 25 in combat during July (according to Holm), the Hungarian unit had been renamed by then into 2/2 "Coconut".
p.s.:
I have also a personal affection to air war in WWII as my grandfather was a groundcrewman in the Luftwaffe refuelling planes. He told me once off Stalingrad a flyer invited him to get aboard for a mission to see himself what happens there - wisely he did not agree...