Russians bomb Berlin 13 September 1942

[researcher111]

Thanks Gabor

[Paul Thompson]

Gabor, thank you very much for the very interesting information that you provided! Do I understnad correctly that the Pe-8s encountered no opposition in the air? I surmise that this was the case because the columns for machine gun and cannon ammunition expenditure are empty. That is somewhat strange, because the night air defences of Berlin were quite well developed by September 1942.

Brian, a note regarding the surname of the sergeant. It is likely that it was Стаднюк, rendered as Stadnyuk in Latin script. This is a reasonably common Ukrainian surname.

Warm regards,

Paul

[HGabor]

Too bad, I couldn't find VVS DD losses for September 13, 1942 which could be linked to Berlin, since the only lost Pe-8 that day was 42027 in an accident, not a combat loss. I also have the list of lost VVS DD planes from their mechanical reports for between September 5 and 10, 1942 when they lost:

5 TB-3 S/N: 22281, 22357, 22296, 22146, 22435
2 DB-3 S/N: 180456, 180735
3 TB-7 S/N: 4224, 4226, 42096

(They also lost 7 IL-4 (DB-3F) and a PS-84 (~Li-2), S/N: 3301) So far I have nothing else for Sept 13., 1942, so not sure about the "Berlin" raid and the escaped guy this day. I still think that some data in his story is incorrect.

Gabor

[HGabor]

Thanks Paul, unfortunately I have no idea why the ammo columns remained blank. (Not even "-") I assume if they met no air opposition, then they did not waste any ammo, so their consumption was zero. Or in the HQ office they simply did not receive data for the "small" stuff. Either way, later this changed, because eg. the IL-2 units in 1944-45 in their war diaries all gave very detailed figures for their used ammo by kind after every mission.
Cheers,

Gabor

[Col Bruggy]

Brian,

Next time you are at the TNA (or one of your minions), check out Stadnik's MI9 Report: No.WO208 3311 946 (G).

http://www.conscript-heroes.com/MI9-02.html

Would make interesting reading!

Col

[HGabor]

Paul,
In 1944 the Pe-8 crews still had several gunners, so they must carry (and use) guns and ammo.
Berlin, btw, was bombed by the 25 GvAP DD Pe-8s as well on March 13, 1943. Cheers,
Gabor

[researcher111]

If those crews of the US Fort brother managed to get as far as Berlin,Bucharest, Budapest , Warsaw etc by '42 and 43 and unlike those DB-3 and IL-4 crews come back relatively unscaved then this bomber must have had some superior performance features despite the one pilot cockpit type .

[kirche]

Good day,
Pilots sergeants Stadnik (or Stadnyuk) Aleksei Evdokimovich and his partner Pinchuk Peter Kuzmich is not known to the VVS RKKA.
In a letter to Mr. Stadnik said he Sergeant «strelok-bombardier (navigator) on the bomber TB-3F». But I doubt very much that Berlin was flying navigators with the rank of Sergeant (by age, profession and the mission he was supposed to be a officer). And I very much doubt that the Navigator of the plane didn't know his exact name (DB-3F). Think doesn't make sense to look for a RAID on Berlin on 13 September 1942. In the photograph of a man obviously older than 20 years.
This is a fake legend.
Stadnik Alexei Evdokimovich, 05.05.1922, Stalin oblast, Mariupol. The soldier, private. Died in captivity (in Saxony on the lists of memorial).
Junior Sergeant Pinchuk Peter Kuzmich, 1913(1914) was the commander of anti-aircraft guns and went through the war (with the medal "For military merit" and the 2 orders "Patriotic War 2nd degree").

regards,
Kirill

[HGabor]

Thanks Kirill, for the previously described reasons I also think that this raid & escape story - as recorded(!) - is just a fake legend. Perhaps the escape itself was real, but for military confidentiality, etc. some details were purposely changed/edited.

Cheers,
Gabor

[kirche]

Gabor, Could be anything. But the pilot in this story was. They knew about the raids on Berlin, about how is called Navigator in the air force of the red army, heard the name of the aircraft DB-3F.
Kirill