Quote:
Originally Posted by HGabor
Hi Paul,
No, several Ju 52s were shot down by soviet daylight fighters in the first part of January, 1945. Also, many were lost due to shelling of the landing zones, or during night (Boston) bombing of their home base, accidents, etc.
Both January 3 and 18, 1945 were brutal days for the 17 VA:
On January 3, 1945 they lost 13 IL-2, 3 La-5 (2 La-5F and a La-5FN), 8 Yak-9, 1 Yak-1b (S/n: 22167) and a Po-2 (S/n: 3984).
On January 18, 1945 they lost 2 Bostons, 15 IL-2, 2 La-5FN, 1 Yak-9T (S/n: 1815361).
(-All serials, crews, details known-)
Gabor
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Hello Gabor,
Thank you again for the comprehensive information! I didn't imagine the Axis took the risk of daylight sorties. Could you give an approximate figure of how many Ju 52s were lost in air combat? I'm particularly interested in this because Bykov's listing of Soviet ace victories indicates that they claimed quite a few Ju 52s in 1945.
The Il-2 losses stand out, just like in the figures for 14th March. There's information in the 2009 book about the causes of their losses in January:
50 - AAA, 53 - fighters, 14 - failed to return. As with the Bostons, this doesn't say much for the quality of Soviet escorts. Another statistic is that out of the 12000 daylight sorties by 17 VA in January, half were flown by Il-2s, so the losses were not too heavy overall.
There is another interesting issue with Soviet equipment. Were the La-5F rare examples? I think they must have been produced in 1943.
Regards,
Paul Thompson