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During the first days of December 1942, JG 51's I. Gruppe was unable to fly any mission due to bad weather. It was not until the 4th when the weather cleared up that they were able to participate in the air battles over Rshew and in the north at Bjeloj, flying in support of the 9th German Army. Here the VVS would appear in large numbers enabling the Gruppe to score heavily on their fighter sweeps and escort missions. During the day's fighting on 4 December the Gruppe filed claims for no less than 29 Soviet aircraft, 25 of them Il-2 Stormoviks. These results without losing a single aircraft of their own became their most victorious day of 1942. Missions flown hereafter were rather few due to the poor weather situation. However as soon as the weather improved an abundance of Soviet aircraft appeared over the battlefields. The Gruppe claimed an additional 22 of the total of 27 VVS aircraft shot down during the middle of December with combat taking place on the 8th, 16th and 17th. Deteriorating weather finally put an end of all flying for the remainder of December 1942 to 6 January 1943. With improving weather on the 7th I./JG 51 was in action again, and returned to scoring. Combat statistics for December 1942 revealed that 56 Soviet aircraft were shot down for the loss of six Fw 190s; three in air-combat, two downed by flak and one machine destroyed on the ground. The Gruppe's most heartfelt loss was that of the very popular Gruppenkommandeur Hptm, Heinrich Krafft who was shot down by flak on 14 December. After putting down his Fw 190 A-3 10 km south of Belyi in enemy-held territory, Krafft was captured and beaten to death by Red Army soldiers. At the time of his death Krafft had amassed a total of 78 confirmed victories and was thereby the Gruppe's most successful pilot. One of the other losses during this period was the Fw 190 A-2 flown by Uffz. Stroinigg that received 30% damage this day, 29 December, after a cancelled start at Vyazma-South. Stroinigg would score his first kill on 7 September 1943, a Yak-1 and adding another seven confirmed victories in the East before leaving for the West. Here he would shoot down two B-17 USAAF bombers over Poland on 21 June, and exactly one month later on 21 July 1944 Unteroffizier Hans Stroinigg was killed in action. Operating over heavily forested terrain, aircraft of JG 54 and JG 51 were camouflaged in a combination of several green shades and later browns. It is thought that these units, especially JG 54, were selected by the RLM to test effectiveness of new camouflage colors and patterns under operational conditions. "White 11" was painted in two shades of green, interpreted here as RLM 70 and 71, or possibly RLM 70 and an unknown lighter, olive shade of green. The aircraft displays
the typical orange underside engine cowling and yellow Eastern
Front wing and fuselage theatre markings. Note also that this
aircraft had both a Gruppe badge in front of the cockpit and
a Geschwader badge on the engine cowling. |
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