659 IAP KOLDUNOV

[Paul Thompson]

Hello Gabor,

That's interesting, so all the 150 or so Ju 52s lost resupplying Budapest were lost to AAA and technical reasons? I thought night fighters would have been involved because the Axis losses were so great. Did the Bostons fly many missions at night, or only harassment sorties?

I've been sent a short set of notes about the Hungary fighting from another Russian-language source, a 2008 book by Isaev. He didn't write much about aviation, apparently, but there a couple of interesting bits of data:

1. On 3rd January 1945, Axis aircraft attacked the 18th Tank Corps and inflicted significant losses. They destroyed 6 T-34 and 2 ISU-152 of the 110th Tank Brigade and 5 more T-34 of the 181st Tank Brigade.

2. On 18th January 1945, 718 sorties were flown by 17 VA, 547 of those by fighters and Il-2s. There were 48 air combats, with 19 Bf 109 and 18 Fw 190 claimed destroyed. Isaev states by way of comparison that the grand total of 17 VA air combats for the entire month of January was 327.

Regards,

Paul Thompson