[HGabor]

GMichalski,

Sorry I missed your question on the Yaks. December 25, 1944 is a very messy day, several Yak losses and confusing papers. 17 VA, 288 IAD, 659 IAP pilot, ml.l-t Pavel Alekseevich Gorlach was downed near Vértesszőlős while protecting IL-2s in the Pátka area in his Yak-9D, S/N: 16166065, engine: 3-2707(?) and was MIA.

December 25, 1944 hit the 17 VA, 288 IAD, 611 IAP the hardest. Their Yaks had very serious battles with II/JG 52 fighters in the Székesfehérvár-N - Pátka - Zámoly area. Several crashes, but papers are not clear, chances are some planes are mixed with other days' losses, but written off by the 25th.

611 IAP Capt. Konstantin Leontievich Chernogor was KIA in Yak-1B, S/N: 26170 near Zámoly. l-t Nikolai Nikolaevich Kutsenko bailed out from his burning Yak-1B, S/N: 41184 also in the Zámoly area. ml.l-ts Dmitrii Gavrilovich Kirichenko, Ivan Ivanovich Aleshkin, Aleksei Timofeevich Fadeev, Boris Aleksandrovich Yablyukhin were also downed. (ml.l-t Kirichenko was famous ace, Maj. Aleksei Pavlovich Churilin's wingman.)

ml.l-t Georgii Artemovich Alevardov belly-landed near his base after dogfight in his Yak-9M, S/N: 2715376. Planes were permanently or temporarily lost: Yak-1Bs: 14177, 15150, 26170, 41184, 44172, 05193. (44172 was the regiment commander's, Nikolai Fedorovich Isaenko's officially assigned plane for a long time. He had flown it on 41 missions in 1944. (Not sure about the pilot on December 25, 1944.) According to his personal records, Isaenko later flew the following Yak-3s of the 611 IAP in 1945: (Tbilisi-built) S/N: 310123 on 28 missions and (Saratov-built) S/N: 2235 on another 11 missions.) Other downed Yak-9Ms on December 25, 1944: 2715372 and 2715374.

This day still requires lots of research and data reconciliation.

As of the 611 IAP, see attached pic of downed 611 IAP Yak-1B near Börgönd airfield after belly landing on January 1, 1945. S/N: 39167, tactical yellow '20'. Since 611 IAP was transferred from 236 IAD to 288 IAD in 1944 and their tail markings were identical with 267 IAP, there is an ongoing public confusion about 267-611 IAP planes, markings and photos. This plane, yellow '20' in Hungary belonged to 611 IAP, NOT the 267 IAP - in Yugoslavia!!!!

Gabor