Leo:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leo Etgen
Prien has the following:
10 August 1942: Oberleutnant Viktor Bauer, Staffelkapitän of 9./JG 3, injured in Bf 109 F-4 (W.Nr. 13 241), crash-landing at Nowo-Kalatsch, 30%
10 August 1942: Leutnant Helmut Macher of 2./JG 53, prisoner of war after Bf 109 G-2 "Black 11" (W.Nr. 13 431) was hit in cooler by ground fire southwest of Stalingrad, baled out, 100%
10 August 1942: Oberfeldwebel Heinrich Leschert of 3./JG 53, missing in Bf 109 G-2 "Yellow 1" (W.Nr. 13 430), crashed due to debris from Russian machine in aerial combat in the Stalingrad area, 100%
Note that no reason such as aerial combat is given for the Bauer incident. I hope this helps.
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Thanks for replying. I have most of the data you mentioned - except for Macher, I didn't have neither the Werknummer of this aircraft nor the exact Staffel of the I./JG 53 where he served. Thank you very much!!!
Regarding the causes of loss you mentioned, I did not invent that Bauer was shot down in air combat. I quote Christer Bergstrom (Black Cross Red Star Volume 3, Chapter 19, page 225):
"Still the Jagdgeschwader were also dealt some severe losses in combat with the VVS in 1942. Between June and November 1942, twenty German fighter aces each with 40 or more individual victories were lost in the eastern Front, most of them in air combat. Three of them were '100-plus' aces - Leutenant Fraz Josef Beerenbrock (117 victories, PoW), Oberleutnant Max-Helmuth Ostermann (102 victories, killed), and
Oberleutnant Viktor Bauer (106 victories, severely injured), all three falling prey to Soviet fighter pilots."
That is why I list him as downed in air combat.
BTW, his succesor as 9./JG 3's Staffelkapitan, Leutnant Rolf Diergardt (30 victories, Bf.109F-4 Trop W.Nr. 10237),
"was lost during an aerial combat on the following day." (Bergstrom, Dikov & Antipov, Black Cross Red Star Volume 3, Chapter 5, page 62). Any idea who could have been his victor? Could be the shared Bf.109 kill claimed by Yak-1 pilot Piotr Piotrovich Dzyuba (2 IAP/220 IAD) that day? Or this loss match better with other claiminant?
Kind regards. Thank you very much in advance
Diego