[Luftwaffle8]

Hello!

I'm working to determine if any JG51 Me-109 was rammed on 12 September 1941. I simply do NOT trust Soviet/Russian information. According to various Russian sources, Lt Yekaterina ZELENKO, flying a Sukhoi Su-2 with a wingman, encountered 7 Me-109s near Glinskoye of the Sumy Region (Ukraine).

Another source gets more specific and says: "SrLt Zelenko flew in a formation of three Su-2s led by Kapitan Lebedeva when they came under attack from a Schwarm of II./JG 51 Bf 109s... Zelyenko directed her crippled Su-2 right into the nearest Bf 109 and was killed in the process. Uffz. Anton Hafner of II./JG 51 returned from that engagement with claims of two "R-3s" - his eighth and ninth victories. No German losses were reported." Apparently, this info came from a book by titled Barbarossa by Christer Bergstrom.

Is this accurate? According to Russian sources, Zelenko shot down 2 Me-109s and rammed the third. The ramming victim parachuted and escaped.

Bergstrom seems to be at odds with Soviet accounts, which says there were only two Su-2s on this mission, not 3. Also, the wingman of Zelenko was Capt Lebedev, not Lebedeva (the -a indicates a female).

Quite frankly, I would believe the German account over the Soviet account. There are too many holes in the Soviet account. Zelenko's gunner was Lt Nikolai Pavlyk. In one account, Zelenko ordered him to parachute and he saw the ramming attack. In another attack, Pavlyk was killed in the plane! In another account Pavlyk made it back to base after 3 days, but in another account, Zelenko's command and her husband hoped that she was still living and lying wounded in a hospital! If Pavlyk had survived, he would have told his superiors that their plane was downed. It just doesn't make sense.

Quite often, heroics stories are attached to the KIA to justify high honors.

Yekaterina Zelenko was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on 5 May 1990 by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. She was the only female ever to ram an enemy aircraft.

Thank you very much!