Claims of NJG 101 and NJG 6 on Sept 14, 1944

[Boris]

Hi all!
Three crews of NJG 101 and one crew of NJG 6 were credited by 5 victories over DB-3s claimed in the evening of September 14, 1944. Does anyone know anything about the units these DB-3s belonged to???
Thanks in forward for any help...

[HGabor]

Yes. Two of them belonged to the 5th GvAP DD, one to the 24th GvAP DD and one to the 109th AP DD. A 336. AP DD Li-2 (PS-84) was also lost.

Target was Budapest, the pilots of the 5. GvAP DD Il-4s:

гв.л-т Кривов Николай Алексеевич
гв.мл.л-т Мерчанский Евгений Павлович

24. GvAP DD: мл.л-т Красавцев Николай Сергеевич (POW) plus 3 KIA - crashed at Leányfalu, Budapest-N)

109. AP DD: мл.л-т Пичугин Владимир Александрович

The other Il-4s crashed at Nagylóc, Tarnaméra, Vác, Széphalom, in Hungary. I hope this helps.

Gabor

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Hi Gabor!
I do have interest on this combats too. Could you translate to English the names and ranks of the pilots involved? It would be very useful to those who do not speak or read Russian!
Thanks indeed for sharing your information
Adriano

[Csaba B. Stenge]

As it happened sometimes, there are duplicate claims (by heavy anti-aircraft artillery too) related to the same aircraft. So it is not as evident, who shot them down as some may think.

[HGabor]

Hi Adriano,

yes, Csaba is right. The only confirmed crash site this night was Krasavtsev's Il-4 at Leanyfalu, which was BTW claimed by Luftwaffe NJG ace, Oblt. Josef Kraft. Here I am a little bit skeptic, since -as he reported after returning to his regiment from captivity- Krasavtsev's plane left Budapest burning (hit by flak) so the plane must have crashed in the area in minutes without any NJG attack anyway. Maybe Oblt. Kraft was nearby indeed, maybe he even fired the damaged plane, but I doubt that he had a major role in destroying that bomber. Since we have both the crew lists and the police crash reports, this gives some hints on the appropriate crash sites (eg. we can exclude planes with more killed crewmen where the police report mentions only POWs, etc.) but because of the other scenarios I wouldn't match the rest of the planes for sure to the listed crash sites. Only Krasavtsev's plane is confirmed at Leanyfalu-Tahitotfalu.

The names you asked:

5. GvAP DD Guards-(2)Ltn. Nikolai Alexeevich Krivov (Guards-Ltn.)
5. GvAP DD ~Guards-Ltn. Yevgenii Pavlovich Merchanskiy (Guards-Mladsiy Ltn.)
24. GvAP DD ~Ltn. Nikolai Sergeyevich Krasavtsev (Mladsiy Ltn.)
109. AP DD ~Ltn. Vladimir Alexandrovich Pichugin (Mladsiy Ltn.)

and Guards-(1)Ltn. Ivan Ivanovich Kudrashev (Starshiy Ltn.) – he was the commander of the lost 336. AP DD Li-2 (PS-84).

Cheers,

Gabor

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Hello Gabor,
Many many thanks for the translation. I was interested on the claim submitted by Oblt Krause.
It is sad so few information from the Russian side are is available for researchers from abroad - I mean books in English!
Thanks indeed
Adriano

[HGabor]

Hi Adriano,

you're welcome. I know, accessing Russian materials is still not easy and to translate them you need to know either the language, or - like me - have to use a translator program. But I like this challenge ;-))) BTW, there was a 5th DB-3F bomber lost during this raid, a 16. GvAP DD plane, piloted by guards-Ltn. Vladimir Pavlovich Sabunin (KIA). At least 3 of his crew were killed. His plane went down either at Vác (all KIA), or at Tarnaméra (3 KIA), Hungary, but do not know for sure where exactly.

Cheers,

Gabor