Early April 1944 the I./JG 51 was flying in the support of the 8 500 German soldiers surrounded and trapped around Kowel. Their machies often bombed up in an effort to stop the Red Army offencive. The Gruppe also conduct fighter sweeps, scoring no less than18 abschüsse for an own loss of nine Bf 109s, four of them lost in luftkampf.

Major Erich Leie flying in this machen increase his score by two during April therby reaching a total of 103 confirmed victories.

This is one of around 20 profiles subjects found in the new Title, Teil 15/1 in the series of books delaing with the Jagdwaffe 1934 to 1945, written by others by Jochen Prien, Published by Buchverlag Rogge GmbH. in July 2022.