Soviet claims on 22 March 1943 in Kharkov area

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Hello all,

I found several website bearing the following information (and probably reproducing each another):

"On 22 March 1943, the well-known ace woman Lidya Litvyak was attacked by four Messerschmitt Bf 109s over Khar'kov area. Litvyak managed to shoot down two of the German fighters, while driving off the rest. This aerial engagement coincided exactly with the only two German Bf 109s lost in the same area on this date. The two German fighter pilots shot down were Leutnant Franz Müller (Bf 109G-4, coded "BH + XB") and Unteroffizier Karl-Otto Harloff (Bf 109G-2, coded "yellow 2") of the 9th squadron, fighter wing 3 (9./JG 3). German records have each of these men, who both survived, being reported shot down by Russian fighters."

It is not unusual that when someone tries to identify the victims of an ace, it will only check enemy losses, and not other claims by the ace's side. So I would like to know if other Soviet claims are known in this area this day.

Also, given the known discrepencies between Soviet-era stories and Soviet archives, can someone confirm that Litvyak made two claims this day ?

I post a similar message on the Axis forum to check German losses.

Thanks in advance

[Nikita Egorov]

Laurent,

73 GIAP was a part of 8 VA that time, it means that Kharkov was beyond their combat area. They were operated in Rostov area. Litvyak claimed only one Ju-88 that day in the vicinity of Tschaltyr-Sinyavka/Rostov. Her Yak-1 was damaged by Ju-88s tailgunners in this combat and she belly-landed on the home field.
Location of III/JG3's claims tells that group was operating also in Rostov area on March 22.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Nikita for the quick reply and details, the various websites repeating the above information so are all "slightly out of the mark".

Any sentence like "This aerial engagement coincided exactly with the only two German Bf 109s lost in the same area on this date." on the web will raise warning for me to check it, but in this case I was not excepting so much discrepancy between the Web and facts...

[Nikita Egorov]

Laurent,

As regards to your question on Soviet claims that day, those two Bf-109s were shot down by either pilots of 9 GIAP, 85 GIAP or 182 IAP and 234 IAP, that claimed 5 Bf-109s around Rostov that day, including one by future twice HSU Kapitan Sultan Amet-Khan.

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Thanks Nikita