JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

Searching details as into the opponents who brought down :

25.8.44 Fw W.Skreba 10./JG 77 BF 109 G-6 Focsani South ,Rom, unknown reason

3.9.44 Lt.Hans Riedl 10./ JG 77 " " Budak , Hungaria due air 2 air with 15th AF P-51's

23.8.44 unknown ME-109 near Braila , Rom claimed by St.Lt.B.V.Maslov 6 GvIAP

Alex K

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

Hello Alex,

Lt Hans Riedel was a pilot and a Technical Officer of the 10./JG 77. On 3 September 1944 he was shot down by Mustangs at a functional check flight, flying the Bf 109 G-6 165866 white 8.

Source: Jochen Prien, Chronicle of JG 77 Vol. 4.

Regards
Leo

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

Leo

On the same chapter Parag. 2121 Twietmeyer report dated 17.9.1989 updated through report dated April 1992 , on the same "test flight "
Riedel was able to shot down a P-51 before himself being shot down. I am unable to determine which 15th FG claimed Riedel's ME-109 neither
which American loss can be attributed to him because from Sept '44 on the date is beyond my research time frame. In addition I am not quite
clear if JG 77 was trying to intercept the 15th AF bombers enroute to or back from Budapest through their airfield in Budak NNE of Klausenburg.

Alex K
Budak

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

23 August 1944: possibly Lt Heinz Sachsenberg of 6./JG 52 wounded. "On 23 August 1944, he was shot down in Bf 109 G-6 (W.Nr. 166 233) “Yellow 1” and badly injured over Romania by USAAF P-51 fighters." according to http://www.luftwaffe.cz/sachsenberg.html. Problem: no USAAF raid that day over Rumania. In Barbas history of II./JG 52, the victors are Soviet fighters according to http://www.jg52.net/kriegstagebuch/1944/7/.
The LUftwaffe losses summary database show only one aircraft lost in air battle by Luftwaffe fighter units then based in Rumania, and it is for II./JG 52, so should be Sachsenberg above.

25 August 1944: in book "La chasse de jour allemande en Roumanie" by Roba, the loss of Skreba is listed but without known cause either.

3 September 1944: the only MTO USAAF claim that day was claimed by 2nd Lt Don Beal Terry of 317th FS, 325th FG, but I have no other details. Terry died in an accident 11 days later (see https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/...don-beal-terry for a picture)
Regarding US losses, 52nd FG lost that day 6 P-51s (3 KIA, 3 RTD) but they were over SE Yugoslavia. Outside 52nd FG there is no MACR that day for fighters of 15th Air Force, but two of my internet sources (one dead, the other http://raf-112-squadron.org/31stfghonor_roll43_44.html) say that a pilot of 31st FG, Sterling T Zimmerman, went MIA during a mission to Bucharest. That day 3 B-17s flew the final evacuation mission from US POWs in Romania, so Zimmerman might have escorted them. Zimmerman is not on the list of USAAF dead at http://www.usaafdata.com/search, so he survived, if he was ever lost this day.

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

Laurent, where can I find the Luftwaffe Losses summary database?
Thanks
Peter

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

Here is the link:
http://www.ahs.no/ref_db/lw_summ_los...iew.asp?PAGE=1
The database has been set up by Andreas Brekken, a regular user of this forum, and his team. A big thanks you to them.

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

On Aug 23,44 Sachenberg did not fly over Braila or Galati area though could well be the pilot
brought down by the Russian pilot from 6 GvIAP but on an other nearby perimeter .

Particularly I would be interested to know which 15th AF pilot out of the 5 FG's brought Sachenberg down because
on 23.8.1944 15th AF did not fly to Romania at all nor 5th Recon SQD ( Note : the 60th SAAF Recon Sqd possibly
were not flying to or from Romania on that day either ) In fact 15th AF BG's and FG's on Aug 23,44 were heavily
tight up in Austria ! So either Sachensberg's claim is just an other wrong WWII claim or someone somewhere
made an error .

As into Lt-Zimmerman he had to ditch over Yougoslavia and our expert in here can confirm he was one of the
"Forgotten 500 " crews returned by Mihailovic people to Bari , by Tito's partizans or he found the way back
to Bari on its own.

Alex K

Re: JG 77 Losses Aug 25th and Sept 3rd 1944
 

Is the database still being updated?