Hello,
I think, I might have an answer, rather very surprising to some people as I presume. The pilots behind this unfortunate event might be from a "Polish", not Soviet unit. According to the information, which can be found in the "Lotnictwo Polski Ludowej 1944-1947" (1st edition, Warszawa 1987) by Izydor Koliński on page 292, on 2nd May 1945, a pair of pilots of the 11 plm (Polish 11th Fighter Aviation Regiment), in rank of chorąży - Michaił Siergiejewicz Ponomariow (Михаил Сергеевич Пономарёв - future Hero of the Soviet Union) and Aleksy Krasucki (Александр Красуцкий) were on a reconnaissance mission, to the West of Neuruppin. In the area of "Wüsterhausen" (nowadays on Google Maps it should be Wusterhausen/Dosse), they spotted a lone Fi-156, flying at an altitude of 100 meters. The pair's leader - Ponomariow left Krasucki as a cover while he himself attacked the enemy airplane, shooting it down quick. Soon after, the pair spotted another enemy plane, Hs-126 (in other sources also listed as Fi-156 or Hs-129), flying the same axis but from the opposite direction (probably the author meant the second plane came from the West, flying Eastwards). Ponomariow approached the enemy from the side/behind and opened fire from a distance of 200 meters however the enemy pilot momentarily made a turn and tried to save himself by diving and flying at a very low altitude. At this point, it was hit by Krasucki, who attacked it head-on from the top, eventually enemy airplane hit the ground.
A slightly different version is presented in a very unique (this work isn't listed by any of the known to me libraries and book indexes, no sign of it even in worldcat and alike places) "Z dziejów 11 pułku lotnictwa myśliwskiego" by Zenon Łobacz (Warszawa 1969). I will allow myself to translate a part of it for discussion purposes.
Quote:
During the day, the regiment was executing following tasks: reconnaissance in the area Nitzow-Harzberg-Schonhausen-Rathenow, providing cover for 6 plsz in the area Wittstock-Hawelberg-Rathenow, maintaining combat readiness and ground defense on the airfield.
At 12 AM regiment received a message about German troops crossing the Havel and Elbe rivers westward. Immediately two pairs of airplanes were sent to localize the crossings.
Groups of airplanes were performing combat tasks over and behind the frontline. One of the pairs, while on a reconnaissance in the area Hawelberg-Nitzow, in the afternoon hours encountered enemy airplanes with which it fought two air combats. The pair was led by chor. Ponomariow, with the second pilot being chor. Krasucki. Their task was to localize the place of ground troops' crossings over Halbe and Elbe rivers. It was a quite difficult task due to fog over rivers and low cloud base reaching 300-400 metres and visibility limited to 3-4 kilometres.
The pair was flying down the Havel river at an altitude of 100 meters. Beofre Havelberg, Ponomariow spotted an enemy airplane, which probably was managing the crossing of the German troops westward over Havel and Elbe withdrawing westward from before the 1st Polish Army, to surrender to the Americans.
Chor. Ponomariow made a left turn gaining altitude to attack the enemy with height advantage. Surprised "Fieseler-Storch" tried escaping into clouds, however a pair of Yaks held him in the aiming sights.
The first to attack was Ponomariow. He opened fire from a close distance in the direction of Fieseler, which started to lose altitude but didn't catch fire. Then Krasucki decided to attack it. The attack was successful. "Fieseler-Storch" fell on the left banks of Havel river, meanwhile at low altitude the pair came under dense anti-aircraft fire. The pair came out all right maneuvering, quickly gaining altitude, in order to attack now a crossing over Havel river, and further over Elbe. They made a pass, but the heavy anti-aircraft fire forced them to leave the area.
The pair continued their flight as far as the Havel estuary of the Elbe. The pilots' joy knew no limit as it was their first shot down aircraft. A daring attack in hard conditions was masterfully executed. Continuing flight, pilots encountered another German reconnaissance aircraft "Fieseler-Storch", which after a moment shared his colleague's fate, shot down with an accurate Krasucki's burst.
Chor. Krasucki was unable to contain himself with joy, he was really proud of his victory, of his second success in air combat.
After the second victorious fight, the pair changed the course and continued flight upstream of Elbe river. Without reaching Schenhauzen, they made a 90 degree turn right and took a course for Berlin.
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I kept the original spelling of some phrases and most of the places in the text, obviously there are some mistakes in the names of towns and cities in the text, however, I found it better to leave them be, so anyone can make their own assumptions and research, quite easy using even mentioned Google Maps. Overall, the story seems to check out, when it comes to the place and date, but as usual, we cannot be 100% certain without more precise data.
I think it is worth to mention at least two more things: 6 plsz stands for 6 pułk lotnictwa szturmowego (Polish 6th Assault Aviation Regiment (Il-2)), mentioned above pilots of the 11 plm flew Yakovlev Yak-9 of M or T type.
Best regards,
Bartłomiej