[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello,

the first full-scale combat day of Airacobras over Kuban (10.Mar.43) has aroused almost euphoria among 4.Air Army command and staff.
45.IAP was credited with 7 Ju88, 1 He111 destroyed and 1 FW189, 4 Bf109 damaged. The number of destroyed 2-motor bombers by one regiment during one day was almost the same as for whole 4.Air Army during 10 weeks from the beginning of 1943.

In this case pilots were less aggressively in their claims - in many cases they reported about motor fires, smoke etc, not about the crashed planes. Though overclaim ratio in 4.Air Army operative report was high, the real results were good.
Known German 2-motor bomber losses in Kuban area on 10.Mar.1943:

Ju88A-4 WNr 888633 (9./KG51) 100% loss
Ju88A-4 WNr 144386 (9./KG51) 50% damage
Ju88A-4 WNr 141160 (8./KG51) 50% damage
He111H-16 WNr 8256 (7./KG4) 50% damage
Maybe some other bombers had minor damages.

Almost certainly all these losses/damages were due to 45.IAP attacks.
During the mission 11:45-13:05 (13:45-15:05 msk) 6 Airakobras claimed 4 Ju88 and a He111
During the mission 12:50-14:05 (14:50-16:05 msk) 6 other Airakobras claimed 3 Ju88 destroyed and 1 FW189, 1 Bf109 destroyed or damaged

It is important what effective attacks were against formation of bombers in contrast with usual situation when successful attacks were mainly against solo planes or against stragglers.

I wonder if some Luftwaffe data remained about those episodes.
According to JFV Bd.12 the Lfl.4 daily reports (Tagesmeldungen) for Mar.1943 survived the war. What it say about the Luftwaffe activity over Kuban during 10.Mar.43? Maybe other sources - logbooks of the participants from German side etc?

Best regards,
Andrey