Did KG 26 hit the cruiser Molotov in 1942?

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello Paul,

Originally Posted by Paul Thompson

Is there any evidence in the documents of KG 26 or Fliegerführer Süd/Fliegerführer Krim that a cruiser was claimed torpedoed on either 2 or 3 August?

haven't Fliegerführer Süd documents for the time in question and don't know whether they survived the war.

The event seems more confused than I thought in 2012.

According Kriegsmarine documents, it was Italian MTBs success (erroneously claimed cruiser Krasny Krim sunk). Torpedo planes were mentioned as shadowers only, nothing about their attacks. Moreover, Fliegerführer Süd after 2-3 days of investigation came to conclusion that really Krasny Krim was sunk by MTBs.

So we have only Soviet documentary evidences about torpedo planes attacks - at night and 07:18 MSK, the last one was unsuccessful.

It is unclear for me what is the source of 6./KG26 claim. Maybe some info is in British radio intelligence documents? Or in the pilots logbooks?

According to Alexander Steenbeck (book "Die Spur des Löwen" about KG26), the attack was in daytime (Tagesangriff). Maybe really it is about unsuccessful attack at 07:18 MSK = 06:18 GST. But he wrote about the take off at ~10:00 (Start gegen 10 Uhr).

Best regards,
Andrey