Sabotage in Nikolayev, March 1942

[Laurent Rizzotti]

According to Soviet sources, a Soviet partisan managed to blow up a fuel stock on Nikolayev airfield on 10 March 1942, doing great damage including 27 aircraft destroyed.

Such scores are not unusual in Soviet-era accounts, for the Luftwaffe loss list 14 aircraft destroyed by sabotage on Nikolayev airfield in March 1942, but these losses are divided between the 5th (1), 7th (6) and 10th (7) March, as follows:

05/03/1942 Flugber. IV.Fl Korps Fi156 5215
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Fh104 51
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Go145 2872
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Klemm35 3053
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Klemm35 3036
07/03/1942 Flugber. LFl4 Klemm35 1993
07/03/1942 San.Flugber.17 Fi156 4387
10/03/1942 4. (F) / 122 Bf110C-5 2234
10/03/1942 Flugber. IV.Fl Korps Fi156 5110
10/03/1942 II./JG77 Bf109 1384
10/03/1942 II./JG77 Bf109 1201
10/03/1942 I./StG77 Ju87R-4 6289
10/03/1942 III./StG77 Ju87B-2 5590
10/03/1942 5./StG77 Ju87B-1 258

All these aircraft were 100% losses and there was no other aircraft reported as damaged or destroyed. My guess here is that if these aircraft had been destroyed by the explosion blast, there will be various damage state. An explanation of the 100% damage for all was that they were in one/several hangars that burned completely after the explosion, and so there was nothing remaining from the aircraft. That may explain why their loss were reported at various dates.

Can anyone add details to what happens in Nikolayev airfield in March 1942 ? Especially to check if the above losses were all suffered on the same day or not, and if on the same day, when and how.

Thanks in advance

Laurent

[kalender1973]

Laurent,

it was the NKVD resistance group "Centr" under leadership of Viktor Aleksandrovich Ljagin. The explosion on the air field was orginize by Alexander Petrovich Sidorchuk who works at the field. He collect 200 kg explosive and set time detonator on 24 hours forward. 27 planes were destroyed as well the bomb stockpile

http://www.seltso-city.ru/museum/zal....php#sidorchuk

[RT]

This thread makes me thoughtfull, about accuracy of dates reported on GQM...

Rémi

[Larry deZeng]

Can someone say with certainty that the 10 March 1942 sabotage incident took place at Nikolajew/Ost I, which was the principal airfield at Nikolayev?

Nikolajew/Ost I (UKR) (e. Nikolayev/East I; ukr. Mykolayiv) (46 55 N – 32 05 E)
General: airfield in S Ukraine 5 km (9.2 km?) ESE of Nikolayev. Rated for bombers and employed as the principal airfield at Nikolayev for multi-engine aircraft. Airfield captured by 16th Panzer Div. 13 Aug 41. Designated a winter air base and a total of 16 additional single-aircraft hangars for bombers ordered built (Oct-Nov 41), including 3 heated. Major transient airfield for east-west military flights.
Nikolajew/West (UKR) (e. Nikolayev/West; ukr. Mykolayiv) (c. 46 57 N – 31 56 E)
General: landing ground in S Ukraine on the western outskirts of the city. Rated for fighters. Lw. use from 19 Aug 41, but evidence of use after Sep 41 not found.

Also:

Nikolajew/Nord (UKR) (e. Nikolayev/North; ukr. Mykolayiv) (47 02 N – 31 57 E)
General: airfield in S Ukraine 8.8 km N of Nikolayev. Rated for bombers. First mention of Lw. use 4 Apr 42.
Nikolajew/Ost II (UKR) (e. Nikolayev/East II; ukr. Mykolayiv) (c. 46 56 N – 32 08 E)
General: airfield in S Ukraine c. 9.2 km or 12 km E of Nikolayev. Rated for fighters. First mention of Lw. use 4 Apr 42.
Nikolajew (See) (UKR) (e. Nikolayev (Sea); ukr. Mykolayiv) (c. 46 56 N – 32 00 E)
General: seaplane anchorage c. 3 km SE of the city center.

[Rasmussen]

Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti

10/03/1942 II./JG77 Bf109 1384
10/03/1942 II./JG77 Bf109 1201

It seems that these two a/c's weren't 100% -losses because they were mentioned later as losses in training units.

Isn't unusual that aircrafts were mentioned in GQM loss lists as total losses and later recovered and reported by recovery service as loss under 100%.

Regrads
Rasmussen

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi.

There was a claim that 27 aircraft were destroyed in the bomb blast. As far as can be read out of the loss records the number was 7 on this date.

I do not know how the resistance group counted the number of aircraft destroyed, but I guess it is possible that they miscounted?

Also - as always remember that aircraft deemed as damaged below 10% was not to be reported to the GenQu 6 Abt.

In addition I would assume that aircraft on a front airfield (I do not know how the installations on Nikolajew airfield was) would be dispersed in a fashion to counter these kind of incidents (which could also be caused by an accidental fire or bomb explosion)?

Any thoughts guys?

Regards,
Andreas B

[Laurent Rizzotti]

It is fairly possible that partisans miscounted, as do most units when counting enemy losses... overclaiming is not limited to fighter pilots or bomber gunners. It is also possible that the number was also increased by soviet-era sources. But this was expected. According to French books almost all battles between French partisans and German troops ended with the Germans taking higher losses, even when the French were defeated. German archives and graveyards tell the contrary, as will be logical with the Germans forces having better weapons, training and organization.

What surprised me was not that I found only 7 losses to sabotage on the day of the attack according to the Soviet, it was that I found other losses to the same cause just some days before. I guess that if five aircraft were destroyed by sabotage three days before, security will be higher. So I wonder if the dates in GQM are correct.

[RT]

For sure they are all from the same day those types of losses pretty seldom, losses were reported sometimes pretty late , nd reported by the unit not directly by the Airplace administration, concerning those units who hv planes scattered in different places mistakes on the dates or even on the numbers hv not to be scarce.

Remi

[Andreas Brekken]

Hello, you guys??

I am half around the globe and a bit jet lagged, and thought I had posted the following yesterday - the network connection on my hotel is a bit questionable so it never made it to the discussion group obviously:

The losses of Flugber. Lfl. 4 for 07.03.1942 was reported in the loss record of 08.03.1942. So - it would be quite difficult for the GenQu6Abt to have an erroneous report date for a loss occurring on the 10th for these, unless they were psychic. Some people tend to believe that there were quite a few psychic nazi zombies - but those guys usually make video games.

So - the only explanation I can find for these losses being erroneously reported and really happened on one day would be that the partisans themselves remember the date incorrectly - and that the action occurred on the 7th, and thus the losses reported for the 10th was really losses from the 7th.

On the other hand - it could just have been the fact that they hit the airfield twice - and summed the success and remembered this as a hugely successful action on the 10th.

Regards,
Andreas B

[Nokose]

I assume that Aleksandr Petrovich Sidorchuk left his employment at the German airfield before the explosion, one way or another along with any other Russian workers that were suspects. I guess it was good to tell the Partisan Bureau in Moscow that "we destroyed 22 aircraft".