9 December 1943 - YAK 1 loss (Lipfert's 74th victory)

[Nick Hector]

Gabor,

Fantastic imagery librarianship and archival material....

...as always

[HGabor]

The loss entry of the two 14 GvAP DD B-25 Mitchells and their crews that failed to return in the morning of August 10, 1944 from the night mission over Samarica, Yugoslavia. (TsAMO) Both planes (42-32474, red '12' and 43-3507, red '4') were lost to Fw. Eckart Ulmer (8./NJG.6) at Nagymányok and Akasztó, Hungary. The 6 B-25s flying the mission were:

B-25D, S/N: 43-3507, red '4' - Pchelov (KIA) at Akasztó, dropped supply-containers: №2644, 2624, 2627, 2655, 3189, 3196, 2674, 2645.
B-25D? S/N: 42-..362, red '5' - Smirnov (42-87362?), dropped supply-containers: №2524, 2522, 2562, 2556, 2521, 2529, 2551, 2604.
B-25D? S/N: 42-..369, red '7' - Konstantinov (42-87369?), dropped supply-containers: №2534, 2547, 2538, 2543, 93, 54, 55, 63, 68.
B-25C, S/N: 42-32474, red '12' - Karakozov (KIA) at Nagymányok, dropped supply-containers: №2527, 2526, 2553, 2540, 2525, 2567, 2575, 2619.
B-25D, S/N: 42-87394, red '14' - Vasin, dropped supply-containers: №1371, 1370, 1381, 1187, 0788, 1369, 1146, 1165.
B-25D, S/N: 42-87588, red '25' - Kuprienko, dropped supply-containers: №1411, 1188, 1145, 1382, 1374, 1375, 1156, 1163.

(Based on the container No.s the soviet HQ. could check and verify each crew if they really dropped their cargo successfully to the partisans after their radio message. They also knew what stuff the partisans received and what supply should be re-sent during the next mission(s).

[HGabor]

Compared the survivor planes of the August 9/10, 1944 Samarica, Yugoslavia mission to the 14 GvAP DD (later 14 GvBAP) AC list on December 11, 1944:

Red '7', ....369 (Arefyev) was still the same
Red '14', ....394 (Vasin) was still the same
Red '5', was ....392 (Belyakov), or just a typo instead of 362?
Red '25', 42-87588 (Kuprienko) is weird, as on December 11, 1944 it was ....533 (or just typo of 588?), while 42-87588 was still in service and belly landed at Tököl airfield, Hungary on March 24, 1945 with the Gusev crew.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Hello GABOR, sorry about the PM Box being full....I deleted some old messages and now it is all right.

You can contact me also at: baumgartner_asv@yahoo.com.br

The information you added is really amazing; I mean all the cross-checking the 14 GvAP documents and loss list, etc.

May I ask one question for curiosity, when you do mention:
Based on the container No.s the soviet HQ. could check and verify each crew if they really dropped their cargo successfully to the partisans after their radio message. They also knew what stuff the partisans received and what supply should be re-sent during the next mission(s).

Is there recorded on the archives, any kind of reprimand or hierarchical order/penality to the crews who brought back their containers? I mean, if a crew did not manage to drop the supplies and containers on two consecutive missions or on alternate missions, were they posted away? Were they reprimanded officially? I remember some 138 and 161 Squadrons missions that were not successful and the crew returned days later or next night...and there were several unsuccessful missions recorded by the same crew on days, then a good one. I am trying to understand if the VVS did consider this natural (Navigation problems, enemy action that caused them to abort mission, etc.) or if this was a problem for a crew...

Am always learning here on the Fórum thanks to guys like you and the other "ACES".

Cheerio

Adriano B.

[HGabor]

Adriano,

The list of container (cargo) numbers, loaded on each aircraft, flying a supply-drop mission was part of every mission-plan. Thus the soviet HQ could trace every container, based on the radio message of the partisans who collected them. If a plane was shot down early, or dropped the cargo somewhere else due to any reason, the HQ knew what supply should be re-sent during the next mission. Our research goal was to get information on the battles and plane losses in Hungary, including the soviet cargo planes to identify the crews, wrecks, etc.

From THIS perspective the soviet military policies of the unsuccessful missions, or mission sabotage by the crews (eg. dropping cargo too early to the Germans) and their consequences was completely irrelevant, so we did not research that. But because the mission plans contained the dropped container numbers, we know their assignment by every plane.
Cheers,

Gabor

[HGabor]

See cargo list of the 14 GvAP DD B-25 Mitchells on the August 9/10, 1944 mission over Yugoslavia. Other regiments of the 5 GvAD DD (22 GvAP DD, 337 AP DD) also dropped containers at different locations, their numbers are also recorded in the division's mission-plan.