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Old 19th December 2010, 22:56
Andrey Kuznetsov Andrey Kuznetsov is offline
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Re: Aerial minelaying Feb-Mar1943 Black Sea

Hello, yogybär

Quote:
Originally Posted by yogybär View Post
This mine-laying action was new to me. Do you have more infos?
Main German efforts in the field of aerial minelaying were against UK. Good info is in the book "Der Einsatz der deutschen Luftwaffe über dem Atlantik und der Nordsee" by S.Neitzel.

Luftwaffe laid mines in Mediterranean (mainly Suez channel and Malta), Arctic, Baltic and Black Seas.

In the Black Sea mines were laid off Sevastopol, Feodosia, Yalta, Novorossiysk, Ochakov, in Kerch strait and off Gelendzhik. And about actions off Gelendzhik I find almost nothing from German side. It seems 200+ mines were laid, a big effort for such small port. It used as a supply base for Myskhako bridgehead off Novorossiysk, and Germans made an attempt to interrupt supply line before the operation "Neptun" - by air attacks, mines and S-Boats actions. But they couldn't achieve their goal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by yogybär View Post
I searched for it in KG4-book and it is indeed mentioned there for early April 1943 (with a lot of other attacks on airfileds and ports in the area).
Yes, it mentioned in KG4-book. But it seems the mines weren't laid in April actually. And remains unclear, who laid mines in Feb.-Mar.43.
II./KG4 laid mines off Sevastopol and Ochakov in Jun.-Jul.41, but in KG4-book it isn't mentioned.
By the way, it seems that II./KG4 minelaying raid against Sevastopol was the very first action of Luftwaffe in "Barbarossa" (22.6.41 03:07 Moscow time = 02:07 CET)

Quote:
Originally Posted by yogybär View Post
About the KG53-book:
- It does not mention any of the actions between Stalingrad and going back North mid March 1943.
- Ostfront is ca. 170 of the 400 pages
- Attachements are about Spanish Civil War, used airfields, names, losses, V1-missions and some more
Thank you.

Best regards,
Andrey
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