Air war at Iasi, Romania 1944

[Nokose]

Does anyone have the claims for JG52 for early in the morning of the 29May44 for this area? I ran across mention of the 231 ShAD having three Il-2 shot down by 4 Bf 109 but there is nothing in Tony Wood's list. It seems the Soviets were doing a early morning surprise airfield raid. I haven't found which ShAP units lost the Il-2 except they were in the 231 ShAD.

Also I noticed that there were a lot of Airacobra claims on the 30May44. Lt Walter Wolfrum 1./JG52 claiming 9 of them during the day besides a La-5 and Yak-9. Is this day mentioned in the book about him?

[Dénes Bernád]

That day, three unidentified aircraft were claimed by Rumanian flak gunners in Moldavia.

[Nokose]

Thanks Denes. That explains the dead Il-2 gunner of the 873 ShAP that I found listed.But Khazanov only mentioned those three Il-2. Have you any thoughts of writing a book on this subject?

[Dénes Bernád]

Originally Posted by Nokose

Have you any thoughts of writing a book on this subject?

Well, thoughts I have, information I have, photos I have, but what I have not is time.

If I'll live long enough, one day I will certainly write the day-by-day account of the air battle over Rumania in 1944 - just like I did with the 1941 campaign (See: 'From Barbarossa to Odessa').
Before that, however, I should tackle the Stalingrad Campaign...

[yogybär]

What I know can be found here: http://yogysoft.de/Bessarabia_5-2.htm
“
- Roman is attacked by 2ShAK and 4IAK with ca. 40 planes at 4:00 German time with no material results for both sides. But most probably during this attack, Friedrich Blessin from III./JG52 is wounded in aerial combat ("bei Luftkampf mit IL-2 bei Vulpasesti").
“
Anyway, I could not find any claims, even in the JG52-books. Strange indeed, as the other days seem to have huge overclaiming. Maybe the IL2s made it back to soviet territory or they were really shot down by flak.

One additional info: 231ShAD was a part of 2 ShAK, so this can fit.

Maybe this is a rare case of "underclaiming" ?

[Nokose]

Joerg , Thank You. Yes, there is a chance of underclaiming it appears to happen from time to time. But there is also a chance it could have been the German Bf 109G-8 reconn. unit serving there or even the Rumanian Bf 109's. Mystery that will have to wait until J. Prien gets to the volume on 1944 in the east sometime in the far future.

[Dénes Bernád]

Originally Posted by Nokose

or even the Rumanian Bf 109's.

As I said, only Rumanian flak gunners filed claims that day, no ARR fighter pilots.

'Underclaiming' did happen quite regularly, when there was no time to look for the victim's crash site, or simply there was no claim filed.

[Nokose]

The article I'm going through has for the month of May44 for the 5 VA a total of 156 aircraft lost all causes. It states 121 were combat losses with the break down as 33 Yak-1, Yak-7D and Yak-9D, 65 P-39, 8 Pe-2 and 28 Il-2 (98 pilots, 4 Navigators and 28 gunners all KIA or KIFA). They had 36 aircraft shot down on the 30 May and 34 on the 31st. So with both the claims from the Germans and Rumanians the last two days would be hard to pin point and the 29th will remain unknown for now.

[Nokose]

Does anyone know the correct Rumanian name for the following location, Вултурул (Vulturul). I don't see it on the maps that I looked for it on.

[Jim P.]

JG 52 claims for 29-May-44:

29-May-44, Uffz., Friedrich, Haas, II., 5., JG 52, Pe-2, PlQu. 87 254: 6000m, 08.43, 26., 3114, yes, C.2032/I, Anerk: Nr. 386, BB: II./JG 52 List, PlQu. 87 854?
29-May-44, Ltn., Friedrich, Wachowiak, III., 7., JG 52, Pe-2, PlQu. 68 724: 6500m, 08.58, ., -, yes, C.2032/I, Anerk: Nr. 345, ,
29-May-44, Fhj.Fw., Hans-Joachim, Birkner, III., 9., JG 52, Airacobra, PlQu. 78 543: 5500m, 13.25, ., -, yes, C.2032/I, Anerk: Nr. 686, ,
29-May-44, Ltn., Erich, Hartmann, III., 9., JG 52, Airacobra, PlQu. 78 764L tiefstflug, 15.35, ., -, yes, C.2032/I, Anerk: Nr. 1275, ,
29-May-44, Ofw., Walter, Jahnke, I., 2., JG 52, Airacobra, PlQu. 78 671: 800m, 18.12, 49., 1968, yes, C.2032/I, Anerk: Nr. 108, BB: I./JG 52 List, Anerk: Nr. 180?