Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

Hello everybody,

I've started to look into the Khalkin Gol/Nomonhan Incident in 1939 and now I'm trying to figure out the Soviet claims on 22 June. 49 I-152 and 56 I-16s from 22 and 70 IAPs clashed with 1st and 2nd chutai of 24th Sentai.
The Japanese claimed 43 aircraft (in two combats) for the loss of 4 while the Soviets claimed 30 enemy aircraft for the loss of 13 aircraft (11 pilots).
Now I'm trying to identify the Soviet pilots and so far I have:
Known claiming pilots from the 22 IAP were:
Mayor Nikolay Georgiyvich Glazykin (CO) two enemy aircraft
Grigoriy Kravchenko one enemy aircraft
Starshiy Leytenant Viktor Rakhov (I-16) one enemy aircraft
Anton Yakimenko (I-16) two enemy aircraft
Arseniy Vorozheikin (I-16) one enemy aircraft
R. Raykov one enemy aircraft.
Known claiming pilots from the 70 IAP were:
Mayor Sergey Gritsevets (I-16) one Ki-27
Unknown units:
Nikolay Semenovich Gerasimov one enemy aircraft
Viktorov one enemy aircraft.
Mayor Ivan Lakeev, a unit commander in the 1st Army Group, also claimed an enemy aircraft.

Is there anyone with corrections/additions?

Bar with me on the spelling on the names (I'm struggling with Goggle's Translation tool) and corrections are most welcome!

Any additional info on this interesting 'Incident' is most welcome since it's very difficult for someone how doesn't speak Japanese or Russian to find hard facts on this subject!

Best wishes/Håkan

Re: Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

Hello Hakan

AFAIK from Mihail Maslov Book about the I-16, soviet pilots claimed only 25 planes on that day. And Japanese more than 51.

No other information, sorry


Regards

Re: Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

Hi,

according to operational report no.23 of staff of IAB written on 23.06.39 at 08.00 a.m. following air combats occurred:
A) 22 IAP. 12 I-16 and 14 I-15 scrambled at 15.40 and became engaged with I-96. They returned at 17.15. 3 I-16 and 6 I-15 failed to return (1 I-16 and I-15 forced-landed in the area of Hill 704. One pilot was found wounded and admitted to the hospital.
At 16.57 12 I-15 and 10 I-16 took off for battle area. They saw no enemy planes and returned at 18.10. According to pilot Golubiew during the first mission one I-96 was destroyed on the ground in enemy territory.
B) 70 IAP. At 15.00 hrs 22 I-16 and 14 I-15 scrambled for the area of Chalchin-Gol River estuary and Chychy-Undur-Obo. At 15.42 hrs they became entangled with two groups of I-96 fighters. First enemy formation consisted of 12 planes and second of 27. 8 I-15 were lost in air combats, two I-16 were set alight on the ground and one was shot down. In return the Soviet pilots claimed seven Japs as shot down. At 17.34 hrs the Japs pilots broke off the combat and escaped in direction of Gandzur.
According to other report: 20 Japs were shot down and seven wrecks were found by Soviet ground troops. They found out later that three of them were actually Soviet wrecks.
Another report gave the Soviet losses as 13 I-156bis and four I-16.
However later the number of destroyed Jap planes was growing. Yet another report numbered the enemy losses as: "14 wrecks found in our territory with killed and burned Jap airmen and further 11 were found in enemy territory by our recon planes, three of them could be ours".
One Jap airmen was later captured by Mongol Cavalry troop. It was Sgt. Mijadzimo from 24th Sentai. He was shown the bodies of burned Japs airmen and he recognized them as:
Captain Morimoto, Sgt. Esino, Sgt. Isidzyka and unknown.
Officialy the Japs HQ admitted that 5 of their K-27 fighters failed to return. The number of claims amounted to 49.

Source: B.Kondratiew "Bitwa nad stepju"

Robert

Re: Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

Hello,

Sorry for my late reply but thanks for the input!

/Håkan

Re: Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

I think this is the book your looking for on the subject.
www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/4251361/

Re: Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

According to Kondratyev (Khal'khin Gol : Voina v vozdukhe (Khalkhin Gol : The air war), published in 2002) claims and losses were reported as such on 22/06/1939 :

- The Soviets lost 4 airplanes on the ground and a further 13 in air combat, while initially claiming "no less than 25" Japanese aircraft shot down, later corrected to 31 claims. (Among the planes lost in air combat were 10 I-15bis and 3 I-16, 6 pilots were killed and five other parachuted).

- The Japanes lost 7 airplanes on this day and claimed 47 airplanes (22 in a first combat, and 25 in a second one) in the air and on the ground. At least 5 of the losses were fighters in the second combat (4 pilots killed and 1 parachuted). No losses are noted in the first combat, so that 2 losses remain "unattributed".

- The Soviets identified 25 wrecks on both sides of the front line (14 on the Soviet-Mongol side, 11 on the Japanese side). While they initially held all of those fallen on the Soviet side to be Japanese, it was afterwards discovered that "a lot" of them were Soviet. On the whole this data therefore confirms the 24 losses admitted by both sides.

It is considered that these dogfights revealed the inadequacy of the I-15bis in combat against Japanese Ki-27 monoplane fighters.

I hope this can help you,

Kolya.

Re: Soviet claims on 22 June 1939 (Khalkhin Gol)
 

Thanks for the additional info!

/Håkan