Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Good afternoon,

I have reworked my Soviet top aces data according to Bykov's results and the soviet-aces-1936-53.ru website. Enjoy!

aircraft/top ace/score in type (shared kills counted as decimals)

• LaGG-3: Pavel Babaylov 26,25
• La-5: Kirill Yevstigneyev 52,83
• La-7: Nikolai Rudenko & Viktor Aleksandryuk 19
• MiG-1: none
• MiG-3: Sergei Makarov 13,99
• MiG-15: none
• MiG-15bis: Nikolai Sutyagin 22
• MiG-17: none; overall: Nguyen Van Bay (Vietnamese) 7
• MiG-21: none; overall: Nguyen Van Coc (Vietnamese) 9
• Polikarpov I-15: Ivan Yeremenko 7+5sh; overall: Leopoldo Morquillas Rubio (Spanish) 21
• Polikarpov I-16: Sergei Gritsevets 9+24sh or Ivan Lakeev 16+20sh? or Ivan Pidtykan 16,14
• Polikarpov I-15bis: Georgii Agafonov 5 or 6 and/or Petr Bityutskii 5 and/or Petr Petrov ~5
• Polikarpov I-153: Konstantin Solovev 10
• Yak-1: Sergei Luganskii 31,33
• Yak-7: Arsenii Vorozheikin 30,5
• Yak-9: Ivan Stepanenko 21,25
• Yak-3: Aleksandr Koldunov 28
• Il-2: Ilya Mospanov 21
• Il-4: Stepan Kretov 10 or 12
• Pe-2: Nikolai Gulyayev 14

Lend and Lease types

• P-39: Grigorii Rechkalov 54,17
• P-63: none
• P-40: Petr Pokryshev 15,1; overall: Clive Caldwell (Australian) 20,5
• P-47: none; overall: Francis Gabreski 28
• A-20: Nikolai Krapiva 5; overall: Gordon Raphael (Canadian) 6
• Hurricane: Vladimir Zalevskii 17,25; overall: Marmaduke Pattle (South African) 35,33
• Spitfire: Sergei Martinov 6; overall: James Johnson (British) 36,92

Any additions/corrections/opinions are most welcome !

Michael

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Update: the top Soviet P-40 ace is Nikolai Zelenov with 19,23 kills in that type.
http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...941#post234941
Michael

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

[*]Yak-3: Aleksandr Koldunov 28

Maj. Koldunov (866 IAP) flew his first Yak-3 (S/N: 1711) between September 22, 1944 and November 15, 1944 - so during the infamous P-38 incident at Nis as well. He also flew other Yak-3s (eg. S/N: 1933) from March, 1945, etc.

Gabor

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Good evening Gabor,

do you mean that Koldunov
http://soviet-aces-1936-53.ru/abc/k/koldunov.htm
flew a Yak-9 when scoring his kill on 23Aug1944 (and not a Yak-3) ?

Michael

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

On October 1, 1944 the four 17 VA, 288 IAD regiments had only 6 (Saratov, Zavod 292 built) Yak-3 fighters:

S/N: 1215 - 1Lt. Fisenko (659 IAP) - crashed on December 21, 1944
S/N: 1515 - Lyapin, Shukin (659 IAP)
S/N: 1711 - means the 17th Yak-3 of batch #11 - Maj. Koldunov (866 IAP) - September 22 - November 15, 1944.
S/N: 2917 - Capt. Bondar (866 IAP)
S/N: 3918 - Balashov (866 IAP), Fisenko (659 IAP)
S/N: 4516 - Ovcherenko (288 IAD HQ)

All other fighters of 288 IAD regiments were Yak-1B (eg. 39167), Yak-9D (eg. 16166070), Yak-9DD (eg. 0115334), Yak-9T (eg. 0815381) and Yak-9M (eg. 2715322) fighters, Yak-1s from Saratov (Factory No.292), Yak-9s from Omsk (Factory No.166) and mainly from Novosibirsk (factory No.153). Considering all of this, Maj. Koldunov had to fly (probably) a Yak-9 in August, 1944, or perhaps he borrowed and tested a new Yak-3 from a fellow pilot.

Koldunov's regiment (17 VA, 288 IAD, 866 IAP) received 4 more Yak-3s in the next few days:

On October 8, 1944: Yak-3 No. 2015 from Saratov (Factory No. 292) - Shekolenko (659 IAP)
On October 10, 1944: Yak-3 No. 310055 (Capt. Shukin, 659 IAP), 310081 (Lt. Laguta, 659 IAP) and 310220 (Shekolenko, 659 IAP) from Tbilisi (Factory No. 31)

288 IAD (866 IAP) had only a single Yak-3 loss in September, 1944: 1Lt. Shamonov on September 18, 1944, - pilot unhurt. Many Yak-3s, originally assigned to 866 IAP ended up with the 659 IAP. Most 288 IAD Yak-3s had factory markings/numbers (just like the later La-5s, La-7s from Factory No.21) with large digits from Tbilisi and smaller digits from Saratov, according to their 'plane-in-the-batch' numbers. So Maj. Koldunov's plane was probably marked white '17' after S/N: 1711.

I hope this helps.
Cheers,

Gabor

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Good evening Gabor,

thanks for that elaborate post.
Two less than up to date sources tell the following:
Hugh Morgan (1997): "In August 1944 Koldunov became the first pilot in his regiment to fly the Yak-3"
Tomas Polak (1999): "22 August 1944 - bomber; 2 February 1945 - 2 FW 190s - Yak-9"
I would not take these too serious but I could imagine that the date given on that website
http://soviet-aces-1936-53.ru/abc/k/koldunov.htm
23Aug might be a printing mistake, which should mean 23Sep.
Then it would fit well to your data.

Can you tell me when Koldunov transitioned from Yak-1 to Yak-7 ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Yes, it can be a typo - both ways. It can be 8.22 or 9.22, I do not know. Or perhaps he just tested his later plane without official assignment and by September 22, 1944 Yak-3 No.1711 became his officially assigned plane, I do not know. Anyways, he flew more than just this Yak-3, I know about two of his planes (No.1711 and 1933 - received March 28, 1945), but probably he flew other planes during certain sorties due to maintenance, etc. What I know, Maj. Koldunov's 866 IAP had the following planes on the following dates:

December 1, 1944:
4 Yak-1b
10 Yak-9D,-9M, plus 2 non serviceable Yak-9D,-9M
10 Yak-9T, plus 1 non serviceable Yak-9T
7 Yak-3 along with two Yak-9T losses on December 11, 1944: S/N: 1215373 and 1315325 - Ml.Lt. Shamshik and Serdyuk MIA)

In 1945: 866 IAP switched for Yak-3 model entirely. Other remaining Yaks were re-assigned to other IAPs.

January 1, 1945: 18 Yak-3s (1 Yak-3 loss -St.Lt. Stephan G. Shamonov (OK) - to flak on January 27, 1945: S/N: 310173, engine: 422-331 at Iváncsa-W, Hungary)
February 1, 1945: 14 serviceable + 3 non serviceable Yak-3s
March 1, 1945: 29 serviceable + 3 non serviceable Yak-3s
April 1, 1945: 25 serviceable + 6 non serviceable Yak-3s

Sorry, I have no data on Koldunov's Yak-1, Yak-7 planes, as they were flown way too early to my research on the area of Hungary in 1944-45.
Hope this helps.

Gabor

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Koldunov's double Fw 190F claim on February 4, 1945 near Börgönd and Székesfehérvár, Hungary at 2000 m alt., at 13:05 (local time) in his flight of eight 866 IAP Yak-3s.

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

Good evening Gabor,

your Koldunov knowledge is impressive.
He reached the age of 68.
Has his cause of death ever been specified ?

Cheers,

Michael

Re: Soviet aircraft and their top aces
 

I have no idea, but the famous Red square landing in Moscow in 1987 ruined (and finished off) his career. Who knows?