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Re: KG51 losses on 23 August 1942.
Dear Rene, Andreas and Brian,
Thank you very much for the input! As I see the issue with von Bibra is not clear for the moment.
Let me explain, researching the Stalingrad battle in the air deeply, I came across some cases that puzzled me a lot and made me think that some of the GQ loss returns are not complete and mistaken for this period. August 23, is one of the cases. According to Soviet documents, fighters made around 50 claims against different German planes through that day. Officialy only two planes one from 9/KG55 and another from stab I/St.G77 were reported as jagerbeschuss. However, I saw the interrogation protocole of Fw. Fritz Gammel that bailed out in the vicinity of Srednaya Achtuba and was taken POW. Although he states that the reason was "motorschaden", there are vitnesses that his Bf-109 was shot down by Soviet fighter.
The origin of the second case also comes from the interrogation protocole. This time of Uffz. Rupert Holzer from 3(H)/12 that came down on August 14. He describes the attack on the airfield Bereska on August 12 by a group of Sturmovicks that copletely obliterated 3(H)/12, more than 15 planes were destroyed or severely damaged, thus making 3(H)/12 to withdraw all the safe planes from this forward airfield and put the proup out of combat for several days. As far as I know (maybe wrong? still not have the full info) this case is not reflected in GQ lists.
Many other cases can be found while matching with Soviet side. My general question is if it is possible that groups, suffered lots of redeployments, ecpecially from one Lftflt to another thoughout august-september 1942 could report losses incorrectly or simply drop some without reporting. It concerns e.g. II/JG3, II/JG52, III/KG4...
TIA
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