Talk:Niš incident

Morning 8 November 1944 for Stalin was overshadowed by the sudden report of the Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Red Army Gen. Antonova of the tragedy that occurred prior to the area of ​​the Yugoslav city of Niš: from U.S. allies airstrike killed 34 Soviet soldiers, including commander of the 6 th Guards Rifle Corps, General of the Guards Lieutenant Kotova, another 39 people were injured and 20 vehicles with goods were burned. That's a gift to the 27 th anniversary of the October Revolution, presented the Allies! --Свифт (talk) 19:25, 7 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The sources currently used for this article are pretty much unreliable. There is at least one not currently used that would be ok, The Wars of Myron King by James L. McDonough (a university history professor) (2009), in which it rates a paragraph. Peacemaker67 (send... over) 07:36, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

The only direct clash between USA and URSS? NO!

Even not accounting the Cold war battles, the Korea and probably VN wars, there are some other clashes between USAAF and V-VS. Ivan Kozedub is said to have shot down two P-51s, as example. Erich Harmann, in one long interview, recall atleast two occasions in wich he saw USAAF and V-VS mistaking one each others (P-51 = Mustangs, La-7 = Fw 190 and so on) and battles each others with some losses.

Not the least, i have an article that says how the fighters were Yak-9, not Yak-3. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.11.0.22 (talk) 12:50, 9 December 2016 (UTC)

Air Force History Index
are there any records from the 82 FG visible? Buckshot06 (talk) 00:04, 21 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Comment: Found the 82nd FG report from the mission on 7 November here Kges1901 (talk) 09:26, 21 June 2023 (UTC)
 * AF History Index has the index card for the group report from 1-30 November here, 43 pages. http://airforcehistoryindex.org/data/000/080/892.xml. Buckshot06 (talk) 22:17, 21 June 2023 (UTC)

Full translation of 866th IAP report
For information: "On 7 November 1944, at 12:50 [Moscow time] a group of 12 Lightning aircraft carried out a ground attack on units of the rifle corps of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, moving west along the road from Niš in the area of Čamurlija. Four aircraft in formation on an extended bearing carried out an attack, one at a time...Two [four-plane] flights of Lightnings in formation on an extended bearing flew on the bearing of...After the first attack anti-aircraft fire opened up on the aircraft from the air defenses of the Niš airfield, anti-aircraft fire shot down one Lightning, which fell 1 kilometer north of the airfield. At 13:00 the Yak-9 pair on duty of the 866th IAP took off by sight, leader Lieutenant Krivonogikh and wingman Junior Lieutenant Shipulya. At 13:05 six Yak-9s took off, leader squadron commander Captain Bondar, flight commanders Senior Lieutenants Surnev, Zheleznov, and Potsiba, pilots Lieutenant Zhestovsky and Junior Lieutenant Serdyuk. At 13:10 a Yak-3 pair took off, leader Captain Koldunov and wingman Lieutenant Krasyukov.

The first pair, taking off, approached the four attacking Lightnings with a turn to the right. Two Lightnings attacked Krivonogikh's pair. Jr. Lt. Shipulya attacked a Lightning, which was beginning a repeated attack on the ground forces. It caught fire on the first pass and crashed into the ground at an angle of 40 degrees in the area 500 meters north of the Niš airfield, where it burned. Lt. Krivonogikh, repelling the attacks of two Lightnings, set one of them on fire with a vertical maneuver, which fell burning 8 to 10 kilometers north of Niš, on the mountain in a forest tract.

During the subsequent attack Lt. Krivonogikh got on the tail of the next Lightning, on which AA opened barrage fire. Caught in the exploding AA shells, the aircraft of Lt. Krivonogikh began to smoke, nosed over, and smashed into the ground at an angle of 80-85 degrees 3 km northeast of the airfield.

While climbing, squadron commander Capt. Bondar and flight commanders Sr. Lts. Surnev and Zheleznov, determining, that these planes were the American Lightning type, tried to not engage them in air battle. Attacked by singles and pairs of the Lightnings, they maneuvered vertically and horizontally, trying to not let them fire. Sr. Lt. Surnev waggled his wings to let them know that this is not the enemy, after which the Lightnings flew off and stopped attacking.

Pilot Jr. Lt. Serdyuk, taking off alone, was immediately attacked by a Lightning. Evading this attack, he saw that one Lightning was attacking a Yak-9, in turn he attacked this Lightning, right away it started burning and fell 1 km northwest of the airfield. In the subsequent attack Jr. Lt. Serdyuk attacked one more Lightning, gave it two bursts from cannons and machine guns, the Lightning smoked and descended towards the northwest.

In the area 2 km north of Niš Lt. Zhestovsky battled a pair of Lightnings, attacked one of them from above and from the rear, and shot it down with cannon and machine gun fire. This aircraft smoked and descended towards the southwest.

The second Lightning attacked Lt. Zhestovsky from the rear and set fire to his plane. Lt. Zhestovsky received bullet wounds in the right leg, right side, and fingers of his right hand, bailed out and landed in the area of Kamenitsa, 8 km north of Niš, his plane burned.

After takeoff, Sr. Lt. Potsiba gained 2000 meters of altitude and formed up with a group from the 12 Lightnings, which approached the airfield on a 100 degree bearing. By waggling his wings he showed that he wasn't an enemy and began to point to his airfield. The Lightnings did not open fire, turned and left on a 240 degree bearing. At this time he observed up to 60 more Lightnings approaching from the west, which united with the first group, and turned around to the west.

Lt. Krasyukov, taking off and identifying the American planes, didn't participate in battle. He observed a Yak-9 falling to the ground on fire in the area 1 km north of the airdrome.

In the air battle Lightnings shot down two Yak-9s. Jr. Lt. Shipulya was killed and Lt. Zhestovsky escaped by parachute. Lt. Krivonogikh, shot down by our AA, died.

In this battle, according to ground observers, AA fire and our fighters downed five Lightnings.

Conclusion: The flying group of Lightnings, obviously, mistakenly attacked our column having lost their bearings, thinking that this area was enemy territory.

In the air battle of Yak-9s with Lightnings the latter showed good horizontal maneuverability and when turning in air battle the advantage remained with the Lightning, which could easily get behind the Yak-9, which had a significantly larger turning radius than the Lightning. In vertical maneuverability the Yak-9 had the advantage over the Lightning." Kges1901 (talk) 17:29, 21 June 2023 (UTC)