Sabotage in Nikolayev, March 1942

[Laurent Rizzotti]

According to Soviet sources, a Soviet partisan managed to blow up a fuel stock on Nikolayev airfield on 10 March 1942, doing great damage including 27 aircraft destroyed.

Such scores are not unusual in Soviet-era accounts, for the Luftwaffe loss list 14 aircraft destroyed by sabotage on Nikolayev airfield in March 1942, but these losses are divided between the 5th (1), 7th (6) and 10th (7) March, as follows:

05/03/1942 Flugber. IV.Fl Korps Fi156 5215
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Fh104 51
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Go145 2872
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Klemm35 3053
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Klemm35 3036
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Klemm35 1993
07/03/1942 San.Flugber.17 Fi156 4387
10/03/1942 4. (F) / 122 Bf110C-5 2234
10/03/1942 Flugber. IV.Fl Korps Fi156 5110
10/03/1942 II./JG77 Bf109 1384
10/03/1942 II./JG77 Bf109 1201
10/03/1942 I./StG77 Ju87R-4 6289
10/03/1942 III./StG77 Ju87B-2 5590
10/03/1942 5./StG77 Ju87B-1 258

All these aircraft were 100% losses and there was no other aircraft reported as damaged or destroyed. My guess here is that if these aircraft had been destroyed by the explosion blast, there will be various damage state. An explanation of the 100% damage for all was that they were in one/several hangars that burned completely after the explosion, and so there was nothing remaining from the aircraft. That may explain why their loss were reported at various dates.

Can anyone add details to what happens in Nikolayev airfield in March 1942 ? Especially to check if the above losses were all suffered on the same day or not, and if on the same day, when and how.

Thanks in advance

Laurent