[Dénes Bernád]

By checking the three printed sources on Soviet aces available to me (two in English and one in Russian), I noticed that there were a few claims against (P.Z.L.) 'P.24'. It must have been a confusion with the similarly looking P.11s.

Here is what I wrote in the (preliminary version of an) article manuscript I am currently working on.
"It has to be noted that Soviet pilots did claim several ‘P.24s’ (most probably a confusion with the very similarly looking P.11). All known claims filed in 1941 against P.24s were done by members of the 55th IAP, based at Beltsi (Bălţi) airfield, in Bessarabia, near the Rumanian frontier, equipped with a mixture of I-153s, I-16s and MiG-3s. For example, Ml. Lt. Leonid Dyachenko claimed a P.24 in June or July 1941 aboard his MiG-3. His ‘polk-mate’, St. Lt. Kuzma Y. Selivestrov, reported to shot down a’P.24’ while flying his MiG-3, No. 12, on 28 June 1941. A famous Soviet ace, Kpt. Grigoriy A. Rechkalov of the same IAP, scored a victory over a ‘P.24’ also on 28 June 1941, while flying an obsolescent I-153 biplane (on 28 June, two ARR P.11s were lost to enemy fighters). Polkovnik Alexandr Pokryshkyn - second highest scoring VVS ace - also claimed a ‘P.24’ in 1941, while flying a MiG-3 as part of the same 55th IAP.
Ml. Lt. Fyodor F. Arkhipenko of the 27th IAP lists a P.24 in his overall tally. Reportedly, he scored his kill as late as 15 April 1944 (!) in the area of Jassy (Iaşi), in Moldavia. Even Ivan N. Kozhedub, the top scoring Soviet ace, had a P.24 on it’s tally, claimed in early 1944. Curiously, in the type-written list of claims, included in his notebook and recently published in a Russian book on Soviet aces, the P.24 is crossed out with a pen and replaced with… Me 262!"


Would it be possible for someone to check the claims of the 55th IAP, most notably for 28 June 1941? Are there any other claims of 'P.24's by other units?