LaGG-3 Claim 02-06-43 2./ZG 1

[Richard Mills]

In researching Leutnant Gerhard Schlee, I am hoping someone might be able to elaborate on the claim he made as listed below:

Date: 02.06.43
Name: Fw. Schlee
Unit: 2./Z.G. 1
Aircraft: LaGG-3
Location: 63 540
Height: 900 m.
Time: 04.00

I am hoping someone might be able to divulge some information as to his possible opponent/victim that day? or even the area of Operations?

Any help whatsoever will be very well recieved indeed.

Regards Richard.

[Richard Mills]

One last try.....

Hopefully someone can add some information on this claim?

Regards Richard.

[Nokose]

Richard, He was apparently escorting the German bomber raids to destroy the Kursk railway junction on the 02 Jun 43. At www.allaces.ru in the episode section it has three events listed for that day but it probably will not help much. JG 51 was involved in the escort and maybe I/JG 26 so you would need more information from both sides besides what is there to figure out if there was actually a "LaGG-3" shot down.

[Nikita Egorov]

Apparently, Schlee was a part of first wave of bombers raided Kursk. Detected at 4.55-5.15 (M.T.).
No LaGG-3s were engaged in this combat. Planes scrambled to intercept that early wave were Yak-1s of 56 GIAP, Aircobras of 30 GIAP and La-5s of 907 IAP ON. Perhaps some more fighters of 16 VA and 101 IAD PVO were in the air, lack of definite time in reports hampers the identification.

[Richard Mills]

Gents

Thank you both very much indeed for your help and input.

So can we say for definate that I./ZG 1 was involved in the first wave of the attack on Kursk railway station, but no LaGG-3 aircraft were involved?

Regards Richard.

[Nick Hector]

Richard,

I need to check the source of the following info, but I have on my database that the P-39s downed by Uffz. Klaus Dietrich of 2/JG 51 at 0404hrs and Flg. Gabriel Tautscher of at 0407hrs tie in with at least two of the following Soviet losses:

30 GIAP, 1 GIAD, 16 VA. Pilot Gorgolyuk baled out, Pilot Silkovskii KIA and Pilot Koltsov's aircraft set on fire in the air, pilot WIA

The day's other losses over the Kursk region include Yak-7B of Starshiy Serzhant Stepan Yakovenko, 487 IAP/146 GIAP KIA by Bf109 (allegedly murdered in parachute). 563 IAP's Leytenant N A Najdenovym forcelanded back at base with damage and 565 IAP's Gennadiy Georgievich Syrejshikov committed a taran and baled out.

...Just a few more pieces of the mosaic...

Nick

[Richard Mills]

Originally Posted by Nick Hector

Richard, The day's other losses over the Kursk region include Yak-7B of Starshiy Serzhant Stepan Yakovenko, 487 IAP/146 GIAP KIA by Bf109 (allegedly murdered in parachute). 563 IAP's Leytenant N A Najdenovym forcelanded back at base with damage and 565 IAP's Gennadiy Georgievich Syrejshikov committed a taran and baled out.

...Just a few more pieces of the mosaic...Nick

Nick

Thank you for your input.

Are those listed the only Soviet losses recorded over the Kursk region on that day?

Regards Richard.

[Nick Hector]

By no means. They are simply the losses that I have been able to turn up by trawling through a couple of books and online databases. There could well have been more, which I think is proven by the contributions made by the others. After all, they listed some that I hadn't found yet.

[John Beaman]

Guys,

This is a good thread and all of you are great contributors, not just here, but on a regular basis. However, we need to be careful about date nomenclature.

02-06-43 could be 2-June-43 or Feb-6-43. I realize only us backward Americans (and a few others) would think of Feb 6, but it can lead to confusion.

I will suggest, once again, when the months and dates are less than 13, we use the format, DD-MM-YYYY. Makes things simpler for all of us.

[Nokose]

Here is some of what I found just for the 02 Jun 1943. This is by far not all of the losses and I don't have the times and locations to link it with the morning raid but are part of the 16 VA (Western Front) in the region of Kursk.

Yak-1 55 GIAP Ml.Lt. Grigoriy Petrovich Grachev (MIA)
La-5 907 IAP PVO Ml. Lt. Mikhail Fedorovich Baranov (KIA)
Yak-1 519 IAP (AE C.O.) St. Lt. Vasiliy Grigor'evich Mikhalev (KIA)
Yak-7B 487 IAP St. S-t (Serzhant) Stepan Georgievich Yakovenko (KIA)
Yak-1 56 GIAP Gds. Ml. Lt. Aleksandr Pavlovich Konov (KIA)
Airacobra 30 GIAP Gds St. Lt. Aleksandr Ivanovich Gorgolyuk (WIA)
Yak-1 563 IAP (AE C.O.) St. Lt. Nikolay Alekseevich Naydenov (Returned to A/F on damaged a/c)
Airacobra 30 GIAP Ml. Lt. Ivan Vasil'evich Kol'tsov (MIA)
Airacobra 30 GIAP Ml. Lt. Vitaliy Vasil'evich Sil'kovskiy (MIA)
Yak-1 55 GIAP (deputy AE C.O.) Gds. Lt. Stepan Safronovich Tkachenko (KIA)
Yak-1 54 GIAP (AE C.O.) Mayor Aleksey Petrovich Kichigin (KIA)
Yak-1 54 GIAP Gds. Ml.Lt. Vladimir Mikhaylovich Berezin (KIA)
Yak-1 53 GIAP (deputy AE C.O.) Gds. Ml. Lt. Arkadiy Grigor'evich Degtyarev (KIA)
Yak-1 53 GIAP Gds. S-t. (Serzhant) Vladimir Vasil'evich Laktin (KIA)