Lipfert and Barnickel 7th March, 1943

[Nick Hector]

Another Lipfert query:

On 7.3.43 he and Friedrich Barnickel downed a total of 3 R-5s in the Popovichevskaya/Ivanovskaya sector but I haven't been able to locate who the opponents were. Can anyone assist?

Nick

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello Nick,

Some transport and liaison missions of "R-5"-like planes (U-2, PR-5, K-5) were in the area. Low activity due to bad weather.
No losses in operative reports of 4.VA and 5.VA. Can't find any personal loss in OBD also.
Maybe wrong date in German primary source or the Luftwaffe pilots were too optimistic in that case.

Best regards,
Andrey

[Nikita Egorov]

Both victims (no third plane recorded) belonged to female 46 GNBAP of 218 NBAD. Serzhants Belyakova and Serebryakova's crews were attacked by Bf-109s on transfer flight from Novodzhereliyevskaya to Pashkovskaya. Both U-2s managed to land due to low altitude and were sent to PARM. Nobody was hurt.

[Nokose]

Andrey, I have noticed that the GVF civilian pilots don't always show up in the OBD. I saw a Russian website (which I don't have at this time) listed civilian pilots killed and missing but it only provided the month and year with their names. Wouldn't those aircraft be outside the scope of the 4 and 5 VA?

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello Nikita,

Originally Posted by Nikita Egorov

Both U-2s managed to land due to low altitude and were sent to PARM. Nobody was hurt.

I almost haven't step down from army-level documents for March 1943, it is beyond the scope of my present interest. It seems the damaged planes without personal losses were omitted in army op.reports, at least in some cases.

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello Nokose,

Originally Posted by Nokose

Wouldn't those aircraft be outside the scope of the 4 and 5 VA?

Civil aviation (GVF) front units were within air armies, at least in 1943.

[Nick Hector]

Gentlemen,

A big thanks for your assistance on this one, especially Nikita with his info on the 46 GNBAP losses.

Also, Nikita, I eagerly await the release of your Stalingrad book

[Nokose]

Andrey, I found the site again, http://www.stela-vnukovo.narod.ru/spisok_1.htm . I looked at two civilian pilots on there and tried to find them in the OBD but they didn't show up. This site didn't give information on the location of the loss and only some of the date.
examples:
Pilots: Konstantin Semenovich Vasil'ev June 1942 MIA
Vladimr Aleksandovich Vasil'ev August 1943 MIA

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello Nokose,

Originally Posted by Nokose

Andrey, I found the site again ... I looked at two civilian pilots on there and tried to find them in the OBD but they didn't show up.

The source of the site info is unknown, so reliability is unclear.
But it is possible that some GVF losses are absent in OBD, especially for units not attached to the military structures (fronts, air armies etc). As it was for civil railway organizations etc. In the course of nature, GVF (even its front units i.e. transport units) shouldn't be in the area with the sufficient danger of the enemy attacks. So GVF losses were negligibly small in comparison with VVS losses.

Some (many?) documents of the civil aviation (GVF) front units are located in TsAMO. I have worked with operative reports of 9.AP GVF, for example. Also, activity of GVF front units is usually described in air armies documents (operative reports etc). So overall picture of GVF front units is available from TsAMO documents usually.

Bulk of GVF documents for 1941-45 is located in Civil Aviation archive as far as I know.

Best regards,
Andrey