Identifications of German victories over East Prussia in October 1944

[Laurent Rizzotti]

My own humble opinion is that if if German pilots claimed victories, and Soviet air units reported losses due to enemy fighters, at least some of the German victories should be justified. I think that the distance between Gumbinen and Stallupönen is small enough for an air battle to start over one and end over the other. Same with the times, 182nd ShAD reported having launched heavy air attacks between between 1200 and 1240 hrs (German time) and lost 5 Il-2 (2 to Flak, 2 missing, 1 shot down by a fighter), while 129 IAP lost one La-5 probably escorting it at the same time. Against these losses, German pilots claimed 3 Il-2 and 2 fighters between 1233 and 1251 hrs.

A possible explanation will be that Stabstaffel JG 51 was scrambled when the attack starts and arrived at the end of the Soviet air assault and then hit a Soviet formation after the bombing was finished.

Still for me, the difference in distance and time between Soviet losses and German claims are inferior to the error margin in reports "allowed" to link them as possible matchs.