Normandie-Niemen

[HGabor]

Thanks Flavio, it is entirely possible, as this list is far from being colmplete. Obviously many losses are not listed here. If his Yak-3 had Saratov-style digits, then yes, it was the 44th plane of an unknown batch. (44yy) It is interesting, that eg. the 5th Air Army, 13th GvIAD marked the Saratov-built Yak-3s with the factory number (292) displayed in the centre in their documents, like: 1229217 (not just simply 1217), but Normadie-Niemen didn't. Unfortunately Normandie re-numbered their Yaks and did not keep the factory applied, original tactical numbers, referring to their S/N. Saratov factory No.292 used smaller, 'engineering-style', while Tbilisi factory No.31 used larger, rounded-style digits on their Yak-3s. Luckily, many fighter regiments kept the factory applied tactical (partial serial) numbers, eg. the 897 IAP, 150 GvIAP, etc., so if their serial plate is found at their crash-site, their tactical number is known and with the known regiment markings graphically can be reconstructed. Cheers,

Gabor