Header by Dan Taylor
The Focke-Wulf 190's Combat Debut on the Eastern Front
By Christer Bergström

Thanks to Christer Bergström for allowing me to use this story on my site.

After some earlier, small scale testing operations, the FW 190 made its 'real' combat debut on the Eastern Front with Hauptmann Heinrich Krafft's I./J.G. 51. In early September 1942, this unit arrived at Lyuban airfield, south of Leningrad, with its new FW 190s. The appearance of the heavily armed FW 190s was a cause of great concern to the Soviets.

It is quite ironical that the first FW 190 that was claimed shot down by Soviet fighters appears to have been a case of mistaken aircraft identity. When six I-16s of the Soviet naval Guards fighter aviation regiment 4 GvIAP/VVS-KBF, led by the 1st Eskadrilya's (squadron's) ace Kapitan Ovchinnikov, attempted to intercept a formation of Ju 88s over the Gulf of Finland on 21 October 1942, the Soviets came under attack by two "finger-four groups" of "air-cooled-engined fighters" - identified as FW 190s.

Ovchinnikov was hit and barely managed to withdraw from the combat with severe wounds. Two of the enemy fighters immediately pursued his Ishak. Kapitan Petr Kozhanov and his wingman immediately turned to Ovchinnikov's assistance. Kozhanov aimed carefully and fired all his six RS-rockets at the enemy aircraft. The explosion threw the leading "FW 190" into a spin, and the triumphant Soviet pilot saw it crash into the water. The confusion among the surviving Axis fighters enabled the I-16s - including Ovchinnikov's - to withdraw and return to base. No such loss can be found in the German records for this date. One possibility is that the aircraft downed by Kapitan Kozhanov in fact was a Finnish Brewster Buffalo (BW-376). On 30 October 1942, Sergeant P. Tolonen of 1/HleLv 24 was killed in combat as his BW-376 was shot down.

From C. Bergström & A. Mikhailov, Black Cross/Red Star: Air War Over the Eastern Front. Christer also has a website where you can obtain more information on the air war over the Eastern Front. Christer's other website deals with the careers of fighter pilots Hermann Graf and Alfred Grislawski, about whom he has written a double-biography.



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