Article series "Bessarabia 1944"

For the Bessarabia maps included in IL-2 since the patch 4.09, the following pages give detailed background informations on the military actions in the map's area.

Available articles:

1944 - War returns to Bessarabia

The first battle of Targul Frumos - early April 1944

The Dnestr bridgeheads of the 3^rd Ukrainian Front

Katja & Sonja - improving the Axis positions near Iasi - Introduction

Katja & Sonja - Diary part 1

Planned articles:

Katja & Sonja - Diary part 2

German counteroperations versus the Dnestr bridgeheads

and finally maybe... The second battle of Targul Frumos (already well-covered elsewhere)

An older (pdf-)file concerning the Air War in Bessarabia is here. This overview will not be updated, but still provides a good overview.

The follwing sources are available to me:

1) The maps "Lage Ost" were provided by Shingo Hikino, whose blog is dedicated to the Ostfront
2) "Red Storm over Romania", David Glantz
3) Claimslists by Tony Wood
4) several documents about soviet air units & pilots from http:airaces.narod.ru
5) "I/JG52" and "II/JG52", Bernd Barbas
6) "Romanian Air Force - The prime decade", Denes Bernard
7) "Mein Kriegstagebuch", Hans-Ulrich Rudel
8) "Himmel des Krieges", Pokryschkin
9) "Rückzugskämpfe in der Ukraine 1943/44", Rolf Hinze
10) www.worldwar2.ro/arr/g8as.htm
11) Scans of "Deutsche Heereskarte" with Jägergradnetz, Blätter U-W / 46-48
12) Kriegstagebuch 8.Armee 1.1.1944 - 30.6.1944 from NARA T312, role 64
13) www.allaces.ru - calender and further infos
14) "Attack of the Airacobra", Dimitry Lioza
15) Soviet Aviation in the GPW statistical digest
16) Luftwaffes monthly strength returns for January 1944
17) "Unbekannte Pflicht", Walter Wolfrum
18) "Das Tagebuch des Hauptmann Lipfert", Helmut Lipfert
19) "I/JG53, 1944-45", Dr. Jürgen Prien
21) A lot of detail information was provided by Christer Bergström, i.e.:
- additional actions, losses and unit movements of units from 5 VA
- losses of II./JG51 and I./SG10 in April 1944
22) AIRMAG Hors Serie #1 "Bf109 roumains"
23 "Асы Великой Отечественной", М. Ю. Быков, Moskau 2007

Last update 16.04.10