Soviet pilots' claims against Rumanian 'P.24's

By checking the three printed sources on Soviet aces available to me (two in English and one in Russian), I noticed that there were a few claims against (P.Z.L.) 'P.24'.
It must have been a confusion with the similarly looking P.11s, as no P.24 was ever lost to enemy fire.

Here is what I wrote in the (preliminary version of an) article manuscript I am currently working on.
"It has to be noted that Soviet pilots did claim several ‘P.24s’ (most probably a confusion with the very similarly looking P.11). All known claims filed in 1941 against P.24s were done by members of the 55th IAP, based at Beltsi (Bãlþi) airfield, in Bessarabia, near the Rumanian frontier, equipped with a mixture of I-153s, I-16s and MiG-3s. For example, Ml. Lt. Leonid Dyachenko claimed a P.24 in June or July 1941 aboard his MiG-3. His ‘polk-mate’, St. Lt. Kuzma Y. Selivestrov, reported to shot down a’P.24’ while flying his MiG-3, No. 12, on 28 June 1941. A famous Soviet ace, Kpt. Grigoriy A. Rechkalov of the same IAP, scored a victory over a ‘P.24’ also on 28 June 1941, while flying an obsolescent I-153 biplane (on 28 June, two ARR P.11s were lost to enemy fighters). Polkovnik Alexandr Pokryshkyn - second highest scoring VVS ace - also claimed a ‘P.24’ in 1941, while flying a MiG-3 as part of the same 55th IAP.

Gen. Dénes

Alexandr Pokryshkyn by the time he was flying a MiG



EDIT: source Massimo Tessitori's MiG3 Page, http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mig3/mig3.html

This post has been edited by electric on May 10, 2005 06:19 am

Hello Dénes,

Could you please indicate those sources? Thanks in advance.
Incidentally, something similar ocurred during the German invasion of Poland - the Germans were persuaded that the P.24 was part of the Polish air arm inventory, and even produced identification models of the aircraft with Polish markings, even if the aircraft was only used by foreign countries...
Cheers,

Ruy

(cont'd)
Ml. Lt. Fyodor F. Arkhipenko of the 27th IAP lists a P.24 in his overall tally. Reportedly, he scored his kill as late as 15 April 1944 (!) in the area of Jassy (Iaºi), in Moldavia. Even Ivan N. Kozhedub, the top scoring Soviet ace, had a P.24 on it’s tally, claimed in early 1944. Curiously, in the type-written list of claims, included in his notebook and recently published in a Russian book on Soviet aces, the P.24 is crossed out with a pen and replaced with… Me 262!"

Gen. Dénes

1. Stalin's Falcons by Tomás Polák, Grub Street, London, 1999 (for those interested, I have an extra copy of the book available),
2, Stalin's Eagles by Hans Seidl, Schiffer, Atglen, 1998,
3, Stalinskie Sokoli by Nikolay Bodrikhin, Delta, Moscow, 1997.

Gen. Dénes

Maybe he considered that both planes had the same performance. He mistake the P-24 jet fighter with Me 262 gullwing fighter.

This post has been edited by Cantacuzino on May 10, 2005 01:12 pm

Thanks Dénes. I have the first two, but not the third - by the way, is this the book where the type-written list of claims from the Russian ace notebook has been published? With that handwritten correction?
The replacement of the "P.24" by an Me 262 is most incredible! I know that Ivan N. Kozhedub was credited with ONE (not two...) victory over a "Schwalbe" - the aircraft was shot down on February 19, 1944, north of Frankfurt, over the Oder river. However, this event happened virtually an year later, not in early 1944...
Most published Kozhedub's claims lists published to date say nothing about this "P.24/Me 262" (this includes Christer Bergstrom too)...
Unfortunately, the Polish book by R. Michulec ("Stalinowskie Sokoły", AJ Press, Gdynia, 1995 - ISBN: 83-86208-32-5) on the same subject does not provide individual lists, using instead a huge collective table, where the author lists all Soviet pilots with 10 claims or more - just checked it. But I suppose this reference must be a bit dated by now, ten years after its publication.

Ruy

I am very interested.

This post has been edited by D13-th_Mytzu on May 11, 2005 09:17 am

I am very interested.

O.K., Mytzu, contact me via PM, so we can discuss the details.

Gen. Dénes

Maybe he considered that both planes had the same performance. He mistake the P-24 jet fighter with Me 262 gullwing fighter.

I must have been the 262 flew by Greceanu.