Ivan Kozhedub

[knusel]

Hello,

how come, this fine website lists 64 instead of 62 Kozhedub kills ?
http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/kojedub2.htm
Has his offical score been increased by postwar authorities ?

Michael

[mars]

I will guess that would includes 2 US P-51 he shot down in a "friendly fire" incident

[knusel]

That was my thought, too, but in the ace list of that website
http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/all1.htm
64 kills plus 2 P-51 are listed.
If this is a mistake, could you name the kills of the Kozhedub 64-kill-list that constitute these P-51 kills in disguise ?

Michael

[Nokose]

This is what Mikhail Bykov's book on Soviet Aces has about this subject: "The summary of the combat operations of the best fighter ace of the anti-Hitler coalition in the official Soviet historiography appears 62 enemy aircraft, shot down personally, but this figure is slightly underestimated, because in the award documents, from where it, strictly indicates, and it was taken, for unknown reasons, there are absent two air victories (08 April 44 - Bf 109 and 11 Apr 44 - PZL-24), whereas they are present in the operational documents, subject to, officially being entered into the personal score of the pilot and awarded according to the existing standards of consideration for shot down aircraft."

I translated the dates so as to be no confusion and put Bf 109 instead of Me-109.

[knusel]

Dear Nokose,

hmm, that's what I wanted to know...however, the 8Apr44 kill isn't is this list either...do you mean the 8Jun44 Bf109 ?


Michael

[Nokose]

Hi Michael,
I counted through Bykov's list twice to just make sure on Kozhedub's score. Funny thing is I counted 63 as he forgot to add the 08 Apr 44 Bf 109 but it's in his comments. The one for the 08 Jun 44 is in the list as shot down at Kyrpitsy.

[Evgeny Velichko]

http://warspot.ru/419-propavshaya-po...vana-kozheduba

Lost victory of I.Kozhedub.

[Dénes Bernád]

I don't have any Rumanian combat loss for 11 April 1944. Not much air activity happened on that day.

[knusel]

Fine.
Has ever any ace achieved a higher La-7 total than Kozhedub's 18 ?

Cheers,

Michael

[knusel]

Dear Nokose & Co,

I've scrutinized that victory list:
http://soviet-aces-1936-53.ru/abc/k/kozhedub.htm
It features 64 kills including the one on 11Apr44 but without the one on 8Apr you've mentioned.
I also compared it with this list:
https://www.lesasdelaluftwaffe.fr/au...ivan-kozhedub/
It matches the other list well. It also suggests the kills that make the difference between the total of 62 and the total of 64 to be the ones on 9Jul43 (9Aug in the other list) and 17Feb45.
I wonder why Kozhedub's La-7 in the Russian museum shows 62 kills only and if this scoreboard is the sole basis for Western authors to attribute this total to Kozhedub instead of the 64.

Have a nice Sunday evening,

Michael