Air War around Demyansk 1942

[Nokose]

11 June 1942
From 08:40 - 09:05 (MT) 6 Hurricanes from 485 IAP patrolled in the area of Bolshiye Dubovitsy at an altitude of 1000 - 1200 m and engaged in aerial combat with 10 Ju 87 and 11 Bf 109 escorts. The battle lasted for 25 minutes. The Soviet pilots claimed to have shot down 4 Me-109 and damaged 2 Me-109 in the areas of Bolshiye Gorby, Byskovo, Nikolskoye and Bolshiye Zakhod. The Hurricane of Mladshiy Leytenant Yakov Bakharev, an ace with 7 personal victories and 5 group was listed as missing in action. The Hurricane of Leytenant Laktimov was damaged and tried to return to his airfield but had to make an emergency landing in the area of Mokry Ostrov. The fighter was wrecked and the pilot was slightly injured. (Operational Report of the Staff VVS North Western Front 12.06.1942 TsAMO f. 221, o. 1351, d. 356, l. 287)

The German side of this dogfight appears to involve I./JG 51. Hauptmann Heinrich Krafft of Stab I/JG 51 made a claim “1” (.) at 07:56 and recorded another “1” at 07:58, both with no location. Feldwebel Josef Jennewein of 2./JG 51 was a little more precise by claiming a Yak-1 (.) at 07:57 with no location. As far as the Soviet claims for 4 Me-109 shot down and 2 Me-109 damaged, there is nothing to even confirm these claims in the records of I/JG 51 (nor the records of JG 54).