JG 52 victories

[Nokose]

I bought the book "A Dance with Death Soviet Airwomen in World War II" by Anne Noggle a few years ago and found the following. 125 BAP (all female bomber unit except a few male gunners) raided German positions at Krymskaya on 02 June 1943. Nine Pe-2 were led by Yevgeniya Timofeyeva the regiment's deputy commander. They left the target with no fighter escort. Five of the Pe-2 were shot down by Bf 109. Mariya Dolina received the HSU for this mission. They claimed to have shot down four German fighters but none appeared to have went down.

JFV 12/II 02 Jun 1943
2./JG 52 Obfw Rudolf Trenkel Pe-2 (74) 13:27 PlQu. 34 Ost/ 85112
2./JG 52 " " " Pe-2 (75) 13:28 85112/ NE of Krymskaya

2./JG 52 Gefr. Friedrich Goepfert Pe-2 (1) 13:29 34 Ost/ 85121

3./JG 52 Fw. Werner Manz Pe-2 (2) 13:45 34/ 86391

There is no one in any other unit making a claim for the 5th Pe-2 shot down.

[Nokose]

29 Jun 1942 The Soviet South Western Front sent bombers into the regions of Gusarovka (Husarivka) - Shevelevka (Shevelivka) losing one Su-2 in that area. Andreevka - Mospanovo (Mos'panve) losing four Su-2 from the 826 BBAP. These locations are to the southeast Kharkov. I could find only one pilot claiming a Su-2 in the Kharkov area were JG 52 was stationed.

1./JG 52 Fw. Karl Hammerl Su-2 (34) 16:31 5 km east of Bolshoje.

So four Su-2 either fell to AAA or other fighters beside the JG units.

[Nokose]

Battle of Kharkov 28 May 1942
Four LaGG-3 170 IAP and two I-16 762 IAP.
Soviets claimed two Bf 109 shot down. One by Lt Nikolay Vasil'evich Smirnov of the 170 IAP his 5th victory (His last before death in June 42). Kapt. Ignatiy Petrovich Kovalev his 3rd victory (Total for the war of 10 personal). No matching losses in JG3, JG 52 and JG 77.

Soviet losses: The two I-16 of the 762 IAP made forced landings in their territory.
LaGG-3 170 IAP Kapt Kovalev belly landed 3 km NE of Lozovaya
LaGG-3 170 IAP Serz. Kravchenko bailed out and plane crashed 0.5 km E of Lozovaya.
LaGG-3 170 IAP Lt. Ivan Mikhaylovich Shuytsev (KIA)

3./JG 52
Uffz. Wilhelm Frewoerth I-26 (6) 09:53
Obfw. Heinz Ahnert I-26 (26) 09:55 and I-61 (27) 09:57.

No one claimed the two I-16 as victories.

[Nick Hector]

Hi Michael,

Ofw. Oskar Wunder and Uffz. Paul Herhold of the 2. Staffel claimed I-16s at 1527 and 1528. Could those have been the 762 IAP machines that were lost?

Nick

[Nokose]

No, that was a separate battle. There seems to be a lot of over claiming in the Battle of Kharkov which makes it hard to pick them out.

[Nokose]

I was tracking down the location of a SB shot down in the region of Leningrad and found the following. This has no JG 54 claims in it even though it is on the Leningrad Front.

11 Sep 1941
SB (# 27/3) 452 BAP Ml. Lt. Gavriil Nikolaevich Kasatkin (MIA) crashed 1 km east of Zamoshye (NE of Chudovo)

SB 452 BAP Ml. Lt. Lev Ivanovich Baromenskiy (MIA)

SB 452 BAP Lt. Alesandr Georgievich Smirnov (MIA)

SB 452 BAP (Fl co.) Ml. Lt. Mikhail Gavrilovich Istorkin (KIA)

SB 452 BAP unk pilot

SB 452 BAP unk pilot

SB 452 BAP unk pilot

SB 452 BAP unk pilot
(There was eight navigator listed as MIA)

6/JG 52 Uffz Helmut Rampfel SB-3 (8) 08:57
5/JG 52 Oblt. Siegfried Simsch DB-3 (15) 08:59
5/JG 52 Fw Alfred Lehmann DB-3 (7) 09:00
6/JG 52 Obfw Ernst Quasinowski SB-3 (7) 09:02

9/JG 27 Obfw Franz Blazytko DB-3 (24) 09:02 NE of Chudovo and DB-3 (25) 09:04
9/JG 27 Uffz Walter Hillgruber DB-3 (6) 09:07

5/JG 53 Oblt. Helmut Belser SB-3 (5) 09:06 and SB-3 (6) 09:11
5/JG 53 Lt. Hans Stadlbauer SB (?) 09:08 and SB (?) 09:14

[Nick Hector]

Hi Michael,

I have noted that II/JG 53, in particular Belser and Stadlbauer claimed SBs around this time but the location appears to be Ljuban. Could they still have been 452 BAP SBs as well?

Nick

[John Beaman]

Nakose and Nick:

Thanks for keeping after this subject. Good work!

[Nokose]

Hello Nick, I've found mention of a shot down MiG-3 performing escort to Sinyavino on that day. I was looking at the first SB that was shot down which seems to be Franz Blazytko of JG 27 from the location. There could have been more SB that forced landed without any KIA or MIA but I don't have anything more to go on (1941 is a hard period for finding information without living in Russia, which I don't). The VVS KBF bombers were in the air that day and had some losses but not sure how many. It appears that any time that more then one JG is in the air there will be over claiming but in this case it doesn't seem to bad.

You welcome John but hopefully more Russians and others will print on this subject in English.

[Nick Hector]

For John:
I echo Nokose's "you're welcome" because this is a subject that I cannot believe doesn't interest everybody (...for me, it is second only to my lifelong study of rainfall levels in darkest Tanzania LOL)

For Nokose:
I could have sworn you were Russian....