Russian air attack on St Pölten, April 1945

[Chris Going]

One for those of our friends familiar with Russian archives. St Pölten in Austria was bombed from the air around April 14th 1945. I’d like, if possible, to identify the Units which carried out the attack, and, if possible, any information on the likely bomb calibres, and fusing used.

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year

Chris Going

[HGabor]

Hi Chris,

On April 15, 1945 25 A-20 Bostons of the 17 VA, 244 BAD, 861 BAP bombed the Western part of Sankt-Pölten in 25 sorties with 37 hrs, 30 mins. total flight time. From the altitude of 2850 m the planes dropped:

137 FAB-100, and
143 AO-50-100 type bombs without any losses.

Fighter escort was provided by 8 Yak-3s of the 17 VA, 288 IAD, 659 IAP with 5 hrs, 40 mins. total flight time. No losses.

I hope this helps.
Cheers and Happy New Year!

Gabor

[Chris Going]

Gabor!

thank you so much for that speedy, comprehensive reply. I’m doing a (very) rapid overview of the bombing of Sankt Pölten to update an old EROW risk profile I wrote and while I have 15th AF statistics, I lacked the Russian contribution. I am in your debt.

Boldog új évet!

Chris Going

[HGabor]

Hello Chris,
Glad to be able to help. I must say that we could go even deeper, eg. we know the participating 861 BAP A-20 Bostons by their AC numbers, since at the end of the war they had a little more than 25 planes in service. Also, we have the list of the Yak-3s. On this mission the lead-bomber was Maj. Mihail Mihailovics Pirkov, the lead-navigator was Maj. Pavel Petrovich Golovenkov.

On April 14, 1945 IL-2s of the 17 VA, 189 ShAD, 615 ShAP were strafing the roads just west of Sank-Pölten. The pilots: Kotov, Gnatchenko, Zhuravlev, Ivanov, Benkovskii and Kligun (under the protection of two 848 IAP La-5s) dropped 6 FAB-50, 58 AO-25, 160 AO-2,5, 128 PTAB anti-tank bombs and fired 970 23mm and 1180 7.62mm rounds, etc... During the day the 848 IAP lost La-5FN (c/n: 39211664, engine: 8212182, white '64') to flak, the pilot, ml.lt. Georgii Vasilevich Timofeev was WIA. Plane belly landed and burned near Neinfeld?, but it was from a late 4-plane flight in the Pottestein? area, also covering ground attack Il-2 Sturmoviks.

The Soviet late war documentation is overwhelmingly detailed and massive.
Cheers,

Gabor

[Chris Going]

Gabor,

Many, many thanks for this, and for the information on air actions W of Sank-Pölten on April 14th. Your last sentence is really encouraging. I have been working on tracking down original reconnaissance imagery of St Sank-Pölten and having the details of this attack now allows me to concentrate my efforts on finding a photographic cover dating to after April 14/15th. This is something of a slog as it's beginning to look as if the majority of index overlays in the US National Archives are missing, although the cans may still exist.

I also have one or two highly specific questions I’d like to direct to you (eg air actions near Trawniki railway station, Poland, in Aug-September 1944), but they are a bit small print for this forum! If you don’t mind I’ll contact you off board?

Best

Chris Going

[HGabor]

Chris,
My research area is the 5, 17 (and 18 VA South) in 1944-45 which does not include Poland. Sorry, I have not researched that area.
Gabor

[Chris Going]

Hi Gabor:

No problem about Poland. I have some routes into that data.
Meanwhile, thanks for all of your help. It is greatly appreciated!

Sok-sok köszönet a segítségért

Chris Going