A couple of ?? RE: Emil Lang's 18 vic day..

[NickM]

Guys:

I am in the process of reading Hannig's 'Luftwaffe Fighter Ace' & right now the book is at the point where Lang & company are flying from a nearly deserted airbase in Kiev; he claimed 18 vics that day in 4 separate sorties;
SO...a couple of questions:

Was Lang's wingman, Uffz 'Fred' Gross the same person as Lt Alfred Gross who was with Lang on the flight where Lang was shot down & killed? Does anyone know what happened to Gross? Did he survive the war? What Vic total?

Second, anyone have access to the Soviet loss records for the day? Any idea what the losses were to flak, fighters & whatnot? From Hannig's account, they personally witnessed Lang shooting down two LaG 5/7 practically in front of them---it also appeared that in many cases the IL2 & fighter unit were totally unaware that there were even LW fighters in the area; of course there were only a rotte of FW's; maybe they were mistaken for La5/7s among the gaggles of Fighters & Fighter bombers?

Another interesting observation by Hannig: at the time of the fighting around Kiev many IL2 units were flying from a forward field--they were so close they'd take off, bomb & return without even bothering to raise their landing gear;

Thanks ahead of time;

NickM