[kolya1]

According to Kondratyev (Khal'khin Gol : Voina v vozdukhe (Khalkhin Gol : The air war), published in 2002) claims and losses were reported as such on 22/06/1939 :

- The Soviets lost 4 airplanes on the ground and a further 13 in air combat, while initially claiming "no less than 25" Japanese aircraft shot down, later corrected to 31 claims. (Among the planes lost in air combat were 10 I-15bis and 3 I-16, 6 pilots were killed and five other parachuted).

- The Japanes lost 7 airplanes on this day and claimed 47 airplanes (22 in a first combat, and 25 in a second one) in the air and on the ground. At least 5 of the losses were fighters in the second combat (4 pilots killed and 1 parachuted). No losses are noted in the first combat, so that 2 losses remain "unattributed".

- The Soviets identified 25 wrecks on both sides of the front line (14 on the Soviet-Mongol side, 11 on the Japanese side). While they initially held all of those fallen on the Soviet side to be Japanese, it was afterwards discovered that "a lot" of them were Soviet. On the whole this data therefore confirms the 24 losses admitted by both sides.

It is considered that these dogfights revealed the inadequacy of the I-15bis in combat against Japanese Ki-27 monoplane fighters.

I hope this can help you,

Kolya.