JG 53 Victories

[Graham Boak]

The connecting rod goes between the piston and the crankshaft. As the piston goes up and down so the connecting rod makes the crankshaft rotate. The connection between the piston and the connecting rod is a circular bearing called the little end. The connection between the connecting rod and the crankshaft is a circular bearing called the big end. So a big end failure could be due to lack of lubrication and would be a disconnect between the connecting rod and the crankshaft, which probably would indeed lead to the piston jamming, or the rod flailing about inside the engine. It could simply be a material failure, rather than a lubrication failure.

Or perhaps I've forgotten more about engines than I thought...

[Nokose]

Sorry Nick but found no mention of the 66 ShAP.

[Nick Hector]

Hi Nokose (and anyone else pursuing this fascinating subject),

try this link:

http://www.allaces.ru/p/people.php?id=00000007925

The write-up makes clear mention of Bf109s, although he may actually have been serving with 568 ShAP at the time (my mistake, sorry)

Nick

[Nokose]

Nick, on the link listed Feoktistov it has he shot down a Bf 109 on the 29 Jul 1942. The only Bf 109 I found in the Stalingrad area with damage in a dogfight was Uffz. Wilhelm Crinus 3./JG 53 Bf 109 G-2 15% at PlQu. 1712. Nikita would probably know who caused that damage.

On looking at that link it has Feoktistov in his victories as shooting down three Ju 52 on the 15 May 42 while in the 66 ShAP (but in the episodes he was serving in the 568 on the 22 Mar 42). Next victories on the 06 June 42 over two Ju 52 while in the 568 ShAP.

Even the story on the 22 Mar 42 is strange. Ml. Lt. Aleksey Yakovlevich Shcherbakov of the 568 ShAP was listed as shot down or hit by a German fighter at the time before being listed KIA. Ml. Lt. Nikolay Nikolaevich Smirnov of the 568 ShAP as MIA after a dogfight and Ml. Lt. Vladimir Trofimovich Kartavitskiy (MIA). If they were in an air battle with the III/JG 3 this might account for some of the Il-2 shot down that day.

[Nick Hector]

Yes, I have noted that alongside the III/JG 3 claims in my listing as they are potential matches for his loss. Until your post, it was pretty much all I knew about IL-2 losses over Stalingrad on that date.

Does anyone know what happened to Nikita's Stalingrad book? I pre-ordered it on Amazon but they eventually baled on me. Will it go ahead after all?

[Nokose]

25 Jun 1942
U-2 16 RAB St. Lt. Pavel Fedorovich Novikov (KIA - air battle) Buried Cherova (Orel Obl.)

The only Luftwaffe claim for this region and day.
1./JG 53 Uffz Heinz Seig R-5 (1) 07:39 (No location but I./JG 53 was stationed in this region. Seig would claim 12 more before his death.

[Nokose]

27 July 1941
16:30 (Moscow) 7 I-16 from 87 IAP attacked the airfield at Fursy to the west of Belaja-Zerkow (Bia Tserkva, Ukraine). 5 of the I-16 were listed as failure to return from combat mission, 2 of which made emergency landings at Pereyaslav.

Lt. Walter Zellot 1./JG 53 I-16 (9) 15:00 north of Belaja-Zerkow
Lt. Helmut Macher 2./JG 53 I-16 () 15:15

The other I-16 fell to the airfield’s AAA and listed as a witness for the flak unit Lt. Schiess of Stab/JG 53. In Prien’s JFV 6/II there is listed a a Lt. Franz Schiehs of Stab/JG 53, so did Prien’s list misspell Schiess’s name?

The names of the pilots of the 87 IAP are available but who fell to flak and who to fighters is not known.

[Leo Etgen]

Hi Nokose

I've read that the surname of Hauptmann Franz Schiess or Schieß could also be written as Schiehs ... I've no idea which was used on his birth or death certificates, however.

Horrido!

Leo

[Nokose]

5 April 1944
IV/JG 51 fighters strafed the airfield at Zubiv, Ukraine, where 728 IAP was stationed. One Yak-9D burned on the ground. Having the misfortune of picking the wrong time to land was a Li-2 bomber of the 12 GAP ADD and was shot down. It crashed to the ground and resulted in 3 crew as killed and 3 wounded.

Unteroffizier Peter Repple (Tony Woods list has the last name as Rogglin) 11./JG 51 claimed a PS-84 (?) at 07:58 at an altitude of 30 meters.

[Nokose]

Post #19 was meant to be for “JG 51 victories” but got added to JG 53 by mistake.