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Old 20th October 2014, 22:20
HGabor HGabor is offline
Alter Hase
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,205
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Re: Identity Red Air Force losses to German night fighters SE Europe 1944?

Theo, you're welcome! As of the "confirmed" victory, by November 26, 1944 I think that territory was already in Russian hands for several days or weeks, so not sure how they confirmed it. My guess is that they confirmed another wrecks they saw earlier nearby. There was NO other B-25 loss that night other than Galinskii's Mitchell! I do not think the soviets would have missed it in their report. The other plane was only damaged and returned with 75 hits to base.

These NJG battles with soviet planes in 1944 are (almost) the most difficult cases I have ever seen. Records are very confusing, locations are "off the maps", dates are tricky as eg. "August 16" could be the night of August 15/16, OR: 16/17, - depends on who and when wrote them (and with what accuracy). Royal Hungarian Police crash reports we have can help a lot for accurate crash sites, but: sometimes two Police stations reported the very same event that took place between & above them, so even police records can "double" the crashed planes in the statistics. Number of bodies mentioned in these police reports can also be wrong if they were completely destroyed and left behind in small, burned body parts.

Needless to say that official crash sites hardly match the NJG victory locations, since damaged planes still could fly more hundred kms before crash, so... without divine help, I think some cases will remain eternal mysteries...
Cheers,

Gabor
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