5GIAP pilots in March 1942

[Nokose]

On the 21 Mar 42 five pilots of the 5 GIAP were involved in a dogfight in the Rzhev region with 6 Ju87, 4 Ju88, 12 Hs123, 6 Bf109 and 2 Bf110.

The pilots were Kapts. F.F. Dakhov, V.V. Efremov, Boris V. Zhurin, Pavel I. Peskov and St. Lt. Ivan P. Laveykin. The wartime article says that they became involved in a dogfight with the Hs123 after preventing the above from completed their bombing attack. The claimed 6 total shot down and two damaged. All awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

I found Laveykin shot down a Me-110 that day. Zhurin and Peskov no claims. Dakhov and Efremov nothing could be found on them. The 10.(Sch)/LG2 was using Hs123 from Dugino in March 42 in that area but I don't know of any losses to this unit.

So do Dakov and Erfremov have any claims for that day?

[Evgeny Velichko]

Hi Mike!

Me110's must be from I./ZG26 or II./ZG26. Both Gruppe had losses on 20 and 22 march, but no losses on 21th.

[Nokose]

Evgeny,
I found the claim for Laveykin in Mikhail Bykov's book so there has to be a report on the 5GIAP records. It could be a overclaim. Have you every heard of Dakov and Efremov in the 5 GIAP for 1942? The information I read was in Dimitriy Khazanov's book "Unknown Battle in the Sky of Moscow 1941-1944".

[Jan Gazda]

The combat is described in Efremov´s profile on the following site

http://airaces.narod.ru/winter/yefrem.htm

However, it says that 3 German fighters and 2 bombers were destroyed and two fighters were damaged. Two of the fighters were claimed by Efremov and the third was claimed by Laveykin. Seems that Laveykin also claimed one bomber.

Hope this helps

Jan

[Nokose]

Jan,
Thanks for the link. It gave me the name Fedor Dakov for one of the pilots. I missed Efremov's name in Bykov's book so I went back and looked again and found it. He shows only one confirmed Bf-109 (archive confirmed) and a unconfirmed Ju-87 for the 21st while the website says 2 Bf-109 but states they aren't confirmed through the archives. It also mentions that Efremov's story of five against 30 was written in recollections again back in 2006. So there is more then one story about what happen but they don't match. No German point on it except no losses yet found. The archive report would probably give the story but it seems to have not been used.

[Nikita Egorov]

Michael,

According to documents only two claims really occured:

Laveykin, Me-110, Glyadowo-Tarutino-Vanejevo.
Efremov, Me-109, same area.

[Nokose]

Nikita,
Thanks for that information. I did find a Bf109F-2 (5742) from 6./JG51 no pilot name that crashed landed, Wjasma-Gradina 80% on the 21Mar42 in JVF 9/I.

[Nokose]

It seems that the Bf109's that were involved were the Bf109E belonging to one of the ground attack units. Does anyone know the units operating in this area that day that suffered losses or damage? Also Khazanov listed a Ju88 of II/KG3 as one of the aircraft known to have been shot down or at least to have been shot down during the day. Laveykin's Bf-110 is the only claim bigger then a Bf109.