Рыбин, Ю. В. Советские асы на Харрикейнах в годы Второй Мировой Войны / Юрий Рыбин . – [Б. м. ] : Osprey Publishing, 2012. – 97 с. : ил., портр. – Англ. яз.

CH AP TE R THREE 42 eighth victory. Weinitschke devoted only a few lines of his memoirs to this episode, which he clearly regarded as a routine engagement; ‘On that day we engaged seven Hurricanes in combat. Leutnant Jakobi managed to put some holes in one of them, but he sneaked away behind the frontline. Nevertheless, I found him and shot him down. Since Jakobi had taken the first shots at him, he was credited with this victory. I shot down another aircraft beyond the frontline for my third victory, which was confirmed by our ground forces.’ Snr Lt Kurzenkov spent three weeks recovering in hospital. Enemy reconnaissance aircraft continued to appear regularly over the frontline until finally, on 12 September, two pairs of 78th IAP Hurricanes were scrambled and Snr Lt Pavel Orlov was able to get close enough to a Henschel to open fire from above and behind from a distance of100-50 m (110-55 yrd). The ‘Stick’ dived into the ground, its demise watched by jubilant Soviet artillerymen. This Hs 126 was Pavel Orlov’s first aerial victory, and he would go on to become one of the most successful Northern Fleet Air Force aces. His victim was Hs 126B Wk-Nr. 4262 of Kette Petsamo’s 1.(H)/32. Pilot Leutnant Rudolf Krauss and observer Oberfeldwebel Erich Romels were both wounded. Kurzenkov had scored his first victory six months earlier on 4 March, soon after being discharged from hospital. That day 78th IAP launched a major operation against the Luftwaffe airfield at Luostari, near Murmansk. The Hurricanes attacked in two waves, and the second was intercepted by Bf 109s over the airfield. Upon returning to base, the Hurricane pilots reported that worthwhile results had been achieved during strafing runs on Luostari airfield. They claimed that a Bf 109, a Ju 88 and an He 111 had been destroyed, together with 15 vehicles. Up to 25 soldiers were also said to have been killed. No fewer than five Bf 109s were allegedly shot down (these remained unconfirmed) and seven damaged in the air and on the ground, along with ten vehicles. However, according to the Central Naval Archive, two flights of Pe-2 photo­ reconnaissance aircraft failed to provide photographic evidence of 78th IAP’s success. According to German accounts, three He 111s (Wk-Nrs. 4295, 4321 and 4908) of 1./KG 26 were damaged on the ground and written off. This success had come at some cost as the Soviets lost five Hurricanes, although all the This crude diagram shows how Snr Lt Sergey Kurzenkov despatched a Bf 109 on 4 March 1942 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com