Lt Georgiy Pavlovich Churakov, 812 IAP, KIA 19 September 1943

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello,

According to the site http://allaces.ru/p/people.php?id=00000002997, Lt Georgiy Pavlovich Churakov of 812 IAP claimed on 19 September 1943 two Bf 109 shot down near Pokrovskoye, in Donbass area, at around 1500 hrs (bringing his score to 6) but was then himself shot down. He force-landed near Andreyevka but was found dead in his aircraft when Soviet troops liberated the area the same day.

My problem is that there are a lot of places called Andreyevka in the area, so I wonder if someone can describe more precisely where this pilot was killed.

I have also tried to find a German claim corresponding to this battle but had not found any.

Thanks in advance

[Nokose]

Laurent,
I found it in Google search in Zaporozhye Obl., Ukraine (47 degrees 51' 0" North, 37 degrees 48' 0" East). In the OBD it has a location of on the western outskirts of Novoandreeka (maybe the name was changed to Andreyevka). In Mikhail Bykov's book it only states he has 4 personal and 1 group.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks, Nokose

When you speak of OBD do you mean the website http://www.obd-memorial.ru/html/index.html ? I find two documents for this man and can't see the death place in them... but my Russian is not good at all, so...

Myself I thought the location should be around this one:
http://www.maplandia.com/ukraine/donetska/pokrovskoye/
And in the same Ukrainian "province", there are 7 Andreyevka:
http://www.maplandia.com/ukraine/don...38-15-0-e.html

But you are right that the location should be more west, if it was on the front then. I was abused by the text saying it fought in September 1943 in Donbass... actually Donbass area was liberated in early September 1943.

In Zaporozhye area, the same site finds four Andreyevka
http://www.maplandia.com/ukraine/zap...34-46-0-e.html
but only one Novoandreeka ("ukrainised" in Novoandriyivka)
http://www.maplandia.com/ukraine/zap...ovoandriyivka/

I think this is probably the right place.

[Nokose]

Yes, the obd-memorial. To the side of the cause it has recovered on the 20Sep43 in that location. From "Dragons on bird wings" it has he shot down the 2 Bf 109s at Pokrovskoye but tried to reach the frontline but fell just short and was found the next day on the advance.

[yogybär]

III./JG52 lost two A/C (Bf109s) in aerial battle.

The Gruppe's Flugzeugführer claimed to have shot down ca. ten enemy fighters that day. Four of these are in the afternoon:
Hptm. Josef Haiböck 1. JG 52 Jak-1 [76 742]: 700m 15:33
Ltn. Ludwig Neuböck 9. JG 52 LaGG [59 544]: 1000m 15:25
Ltn. Erich Hartmann 9. JG 52 LaGG [58 614]: 1200m 14:40; EDIT: Ca. 50km SSE Saporoshye, to me this seems be the nearest to the Novoandeevka pointed out be Laurent.
Uffz. Anton Oberhöfer 7. JG 52 Jak-7 [69 513]: 5000m 15:43
Jägergradnetz info is given in [] brackets.

Maybe I find more info in the Barbas-book.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks,

Yogi, my first guess was that the JG 52 should be involved but my calculation of the Jägergradnetz placed these claims in Kertch area at the eastern end of Crimea, where German forces were busy evacuating Kuban bridgehead at the time. I was probably wrong and will redo my calculation, as I now see that III./JG 52 was based in Dnepropetrovsk at this time.

[Nokose]

The mission time for Churakov's flight was ? - 15:00 (Moscow) [According to Dragons on bird wings]. The location leaves Haiboeck out of this dogfight.

[yogybär]

Yes, Michael, right. One of the four claims I copied in my post above was the only one on that day whic was in the wrong Gruppe/Staffel . Indeed, Haiböck claimed on the Taman peninsula. I'll edit this later.

Coming to the 109 losses that day:
+ Uffz. Theodor Haupt, Luftkampf mit LaGG, 100%, SO Dnepropetrowsk
+ Uffz. Wolfgang Kraus, Luftkampf mit LaGG, 100%, NO Tatarka
Tatarka may be this place:
http://www.fallingrain.com/world/UP/04/Tatarka.html

Both sound to me like further North / nearer to Dneprop., but well...

[Nokose]

On looking at the PlQu. and the times of the three claims it looks more like Hartmann got Churakov from the location. 812 IAP was operating in the area of his claim from looking at the maps in "Dragons with bird wings". Maybe Nikita can give something more precise on the mission time but the other two would be beyond the end time of 15:00 (Moscow) and further north. Hartmann's on looking closer doesn't seem right for the time if it ended a 15:00 (Moscow). Prien's next volume might have something different or someone different.