Peter Duttmann 13,11.44 claims

[HGabor]

Hi Nick, I would say yes. However, I am not familiar with the Luftwaffe tank claims and I have just a limited number of soviet tank loss reports. Soviets had amazing records for tanks as well (just like for their aircrafts), they recorded their unit, date, chassis number, engine number(s), markings, crews, location, cause of loss. But: they were lost in such a big number, that in a field it was almost impossible to determine the actual cause of the loss for a burned tank. In other words, even if the Luftwaffe claim was accurate, it might not show up in the loss reports as a victim of a Ju 87G, or Hs 129B, etc. Not to mention that even soviet tanks were lost to the bombs and cannons of 'workaholic' IL-2 crews, because as far as I know eg. all of these tanks were destroyed in 'friendly' IL-2 fire in March, 1945:

3 UF, 18 TK, 170 tank-brigade T-34/85, '536', chassis no: 4121531, engine: 105712
3 UF, 18 TK, 170 tank-brigade T-34/85, '544', chassis no: 4121616, engine: 105589
3 UF, 18 TK, 170 tank-brigade T-34/85, '545', chassis no: 4121591, engine: 105126
3 UF, 18 TK, 170 tank-brigade T-34/85, '575', chassis no: 0412228, engine: 4090656

Certainly these chassis numbers (serial numbers) also have meaning, as for the T-34s the 1st digit was the year, 2nd and 3rd the month of production, like: 4121591 was built in December, 1944: 4-12-..... (I mean in most factories. Some say '412....' was used still in 1945 as well.) Unsure about the other digits. Or all U.S-built tank's chassis number (Sherman, Lee, Pershing, etc.) started with: 'U.S.A. 30.......' , because in U.S. registration '30' meant: 'tank', like: soviet Sherman 'U.S.A. 30116426' of 3 UF, 1 GvMK, 9 GvTBr, '959', lost to a I./Pz.Rgt 24 Panther Ausf. G in January, 1945, west of Budapest, Hungary. Interesting that in her report only one of the two 671-type Diesel engine serials was given (№671150510), because the other one was probably not readable after the explosion. Later, in 1945 in the Royal Hungarian Air Force eg. they listed all of the aerial and tank victories in a single, common list to make life simple ;-)

Gabor

[Maxim1]

As for Duttmann' s claims... quite a number of those were researched by Ivan Lavrinenko:

https://www.proza.ru/2016/07/07/1127

25. 29.12.1943 12:50 P-39 - overclaim
26. 03.01.1944 08:17 P-39 - overclaim
27. 03.01.1944 08:25 P-39 - possible, LaGG-3 of 249 IAP, k-t Osman Ziyadinov MIA
28. 15.01.1944 07:21 Il-2 m.H. - overclaim
29. 17.01.1944 06:41 Il-2 m.H. - overclaim
30. 21.01.1944 11:41 P-40 - LaGG-3 of 88 IAP, m. l-t Dmitry Shulzhenko or m. l-t. Petr Cherepnin, both KIA
31. 10.02.1944 09:25 Jak-1 - possible, 6 GIAP or 25 IAP
32. 10.02.1944 12:00 LaGG-3 - overclaim
33. 12.02.1944 08:52 Jak-1 - possible, LaGG-3 of 805 IAP or 25 IAP
34. 13.02.1944 07:48 P-39 -P-39 of 66 IAP, lt. Nikolay Sobolev WIA, crashlanded, a/c wright off
35. 13.02.1944 15:07 P-39 - overclaim
36. 14.02.1944 11:27 P-39 - possible, P-39 of 57 GIAP, m. lt. Ivan Shcherbak MIA
37. 26.02.1944 12:24 P-40 - P-40 of 83 GIAP, damaged, crashlanded
38. 01.03.1944 08:03 P-40 - possible, Yak-7b of 84 GIAP, damaged, m. lt. Zorin WIA
39. 02.03.1944 09:55 Jak-1 - possible, Yak-1 of 42 GIAP, damaged, st. lt. Zaytsev OK
40. 11.03.1944 16:22 Jak-1 - unclear but possible
41. 12.03.1944 07:45 P-40F - overclaim
42. 12.03.1944 07:52 P-40F - overclaim
43. 13.03.1944 08:35 Il-2 - possible, Il-2 of 8 GShAP or 47 ShAP
44. 14.03.1944 13:00 LaGG-3 - LaGG-3 of 249 IAP, st. lt. Petr Shcheblykin WIA
45. 16.03.1944 10:10 Il-2 - Il-2 of 7 GShAP, k-n Vladimir Demidov and st-na Vasily Poplavsky both WIA, Poplavsky DOW
46. 16.03.1944 10:11 Il-2 - overclaim
47. 16.03.1944 10:12 Il-2 - overclaim
48. 16.03.1944 10:13 P-40 - overclaim
49. 17.03.1944 09:15 LaGG-3 - overclaim
50. 17.03.1944 09:20 LaGG-3 - overclaim
51. 17.03.1944 09:21 LaGG-3 - overclaim
52. 17.03.1944 09:23 Il-2 - overclaim
53. 26.03.1944 09:23 Jak-1 - possible, Yak-9 of 15 IAP, m. lt. Ivan Dmitriyev MIA
54. 26.03.1944 16:07 Jak-1 - possible, Yak-9 of 274 IAP, m-r Nikolay Volchkov KIA
55. 26.03.1944 16:08 Jak-1 - overclaim
56. 05.04.1944 13:11 LaGG-5 - overclaim
57. 05.04.1944 17:26 Il-2 - possible, Il-2 of 210 ShAP, damaged, later repaired
58. 05.04.1944 17:30 P-40F - overclaim
59. 05.04.1944 17:31 P-40F - overclaim
...
61. 09.04.1944 10:09 Il-2 - possible
62. 09.04.1944 10:12 Il-2 - overclaim

In total: 5 confirmed, 12 possible, 20 overclaims

Regards,
Maksim

[HGabor]

Folks, just some addition to Düttmann's two "Yak-3" (if -3!) claims on March 8, 1945 at 16:24 at Aba-SW, 3 km and at 16:27 at Aba-S, 4 km. The only Yak fighter unit in the area was the 288th Fighter Division (IAD), which had 4 regiments (IAP): 611, 659, 866, 897 IAP.


Planes of 17 Air Army, 288 IAD by March 01, 1945:

288 IAD HQ.:
Yak-3:.............1

611 IAP:
Yak-1B:...........4
Yak-3:.............7
Yak-9D,M:........9
Yak-9DD:.........1 (long range escort version)

659 IAP:
Yak-3:..............6
Yak-9D,M:........22
Yak-9T:............1
Yak-9DD:..........1 (long range escort version)

866 IAP:
Yak-3:...............29

897 IAP:
Yak-1B:..............1
Yak-9D,M:..........6
Yak-9T:..............6
Yak-9DD:...........2 (long range escort version)

Missions flown by these regiments on March 8, 1945 as per the combat diary of 288 IAD:

611 IAP: 45 missions in groups of 4-6 Yaks in the Káloz, Pály, Dég, Enying area. Missions: 11.00-13.00, 15.00-16.30 local
659 IAP: 35 missions in groups of 4-6 Yaks, escorting A-20 Bostons of 244 BAD in the city of Székesfehérvár area.
866 IAP: 50 missions in groups of 4-6 Yaks in the Káloz, Pály, Dég, Enying area. Missions: 8:00-10.00, 13.00-15.00, 16.30-17.30 local
897 IAP: 20 missions in groups of (4)-6 Yaks, escorting A-20 Bostons of 244 BAD in the city of Székesfehérvár area.

The escorted 244 BAD bomber regiments (260, 449, 861 BAP) did not report fighter attack.

Gabor