Air victory of the 5th Air Army VVS on 3 April 1945

[Jan.Safarik]

From the combat activity log of the 5th Air Army VVS we can read that on this day the airmen of the 5th Air Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front won their only confirmed aerial victory. From other sources, I was able to trace that it was some fighter pilot from the 6th Fighter Division (31st Gv IAP, 73rd Gv IAP and 85th Gv IAP). Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to get the specific name of the pilot who achieved this aerial victory. Does anyone happen to know his name?

[HGabor]

All I know is that on April 3, 1945 2 Yak-1B of the 5 VA met 2 Bf 109s and one of them was claimed shot down. The 5 VA very often sent out pairs of Yaks for recce. missions. At this time the main recce. regiment of the 6 GvIAD was the 31 GvIAP which indeed operated some older, but fast Yak-1B fighters until the end of the war. I checked the loss lists of these regiments and -at least according to their losses-, the 73 and 85 GvIAP flew newer Yak-9s (Yak-9D, Yak-9M) and the 31 GvIAP kept using some Yak-1Bs. So I would check the 31 GvIAP first.

Gabor

[Stig Jarlevik]

Just out of curiosity, how was it possible for a complete Air Army to just claim one single
aircraft during the war?

Sounds impossible to me.....

Cheers
Stig

[HGabor]

Single plane during one day, namely: April 3, 1945. (Not the whole war.)
Gabor

[Stig Jarlevik]

Thanks Gabor
That figures. Thought the statement was a bit odd....
Cheers
Stig

[Jan.Safarik]

Originally Posted by HGabor

All I know is that on April 3, 1945 2 Yak-1B of the 5 VA met 2 Bf 109s and one of them was claimed shot down. The 5 VA very often sent out pairs of Yaks for recce. missions. At this time the main recce. regiment of the 6 GvIAD was the 31 GvIAP which indeed operated some older, but fast Yak-1B fighters until the end of the war. I checked the loss lists of these regiments and -at least according to their losses-, the 73 and 85 GvIAP flew newer Yak-9s (Yak-9D, Yak-9M) and the 31 GvIAP kept using some Yak-1Bs. So I would check the 31 GvIAP first.

Gabor

Thank you Gabor, yes, what you write is correct and I also think that the aerial victory was achieved by one of the pilots of the 31st GvIAP. Unfortunately, from the sources available to me, I have not yet been able to find out a specific name I was a bit hopeful that there would be someone here in the group who had the records in question and could help me.

JAN

[Jan.Safarik]

Originally Posted by HGabor

All I know is that on April 3, 1945 2 Yak-1B of the 5 VA met 2 Bf 109s and one of them was claimed shot down. The 5 VA very often sent out pairs of Yaks for recce. missions. At this time the main recce. regiment of the 6 GvIAD was the 31 GvIAP which indeed operated some older, but fast Yak-1B fighters until the end of the war. I checked the loss lists of these regiments and -at least according to their losses-, the 73 and 85 GvIAP flew newer Yak-9s (Yak-9D, Yak-9M) and the 31 GvIAP kept using some Yak-1Bs. So I would check the 31 GvIAP first.

Gabor

So I looked at the 31 GvIAP Combat Activity Log and the regiment had 22 aircraft shot down during April (8 Me 109s [Bf 109s] and 14 Fw 190s). In my records I have traced a total of 21 aerial victories achieved by 31 GvIAP fighters - 6 Me 109s and 15 Fw 190s. The fact that there are differences in aircraft types in different documents is quite common. So really one air victory is missing for me. The 31 GvIAP Combat Activity Log for April states that the regiment shot down one Fw 190 during reconnaissance missions. Unfortunately I'm still missing a specific name.

JAN

[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

In the recently published new (electronic) version of Mikhail Bykov´s Soviet air victory (read "claim") publication Soviet fighter aces from Spain to Korea (mentioning some 1500 Soviet fighter aces with personal information, units, decorations, victory dates and locations on 1558 pages) there are 12 aces listed scoring on 3 April 1945. These aces mentioned by Bykov represent 28, 56, 111, 113, 116 and 133 GvIAP and 269, 611 and 866 IAP, and thus not 6 GvIAP of 5 VA.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by Carl-Fredrik Geust

In the recently published new (electronic) version of Mikhail Bykov´s Soviet air victory (read "claim") publication Soviet fighter aces from Spain to Korea (mentioning some 1500 Soviet fighter aces with personal information, units, decorations, victory dates and locations on 1558 pages)

In Russian language I suppose?

Cheers
Stig

[Carl-Fredrik Geust]

Yes, in Russian with cyrillic characters!
Carl