Identifications of German victories over East Prussia in October 1944

[Courtois Laurent]

October 29, 1944

The Luftwaffe claims 1 victory today.

Hptm Wilhelm Batz Stab III/JG52 Lagg 25278 – 1000 m 14:18


Losses of the 1st VA: This day the 1st Air Army recorded the loss of two aircraft, an Il-2 shot down by the Flak and 1 La-5 missing.

At first reading, this seems to agree with a Lagg claimed by the Germans and another declared missing by the Soviets.

Now let's look in detail at the Soviet losses.

The 303rd IAD is the only unit to have lost a plane this day according to the report of the 1st VA, but this division does not declare any loss, the flight log of the division indicates that all the planes having taken off this day returned and the monthly report of the 523rd IAP, does not report any loss of aircraft this day either in combat or in accident.

523rd IAP: no loss recorded today.


240th IAD: (Yak-3 and Yak-9) carries out 2 aerial combats without result during the protection mission of the 1st Gv ShAD.
900 IAOKP: perform protection missions of 74 Gv ShaP, two dogfights between 6 Yak-9 and 5 Me 109.

The 130th IAD: 1 fight without result today according to the report of the 1st VA.
168 IAP: Made 12 cover flights of 953 ShAP, no encounters with enemy aircraft.
409 IAP: No war mission due to bad weather conditions.
909 IAP: No war mission due to bad weather conditions.

The Division's report again disagrees with that of the 1st Air Force.


Hptm Wilhelm Batz of Stab III/JG52 could have fought against Yak-9 of the 900th IAOKP. To be sure, the time of the fighting would have to be found in the Soviet reports. If so, note again the generic use of the Lagg appellation.

Conclusion: For this day the overclaiming rate seems to be at 100%.

Intermediate balance sheet from October 22 to 29, 1944: for 48 victories claimed by the Luftwaffe, 4 were confirmed by Soviet losses. This leads to an overclaim of 92%, however, it is possible that this figure is reduced by possible interactions between the units of the Luftwaffe and the 4th Soviet VA.