When they arrived, they were assigned to the 31st Fighter Group, of the 2nd Fighter Regiment, based at Knic and the 32nd Fighter Group and 51st Fighter Group of the 6th Fighter Regiment, based at Prnjavor and Zemun, at the outskirts of Belgrade. They also equipped the 702nd Liaison Squadron of the 1st Fighter Brigade, based also at Zemun and the 81st Bomber Group and the Air Training School, based at Mostar. All of them were deployed in April 1941 when Germany invaded, but of the 73 of them only 64 or 65 of them were serviceable.
At 06:45am on 6th April the Luftwaffe launched Operation Retribution comprising a series of coordinated air and land attacks throughout all the country with aerial ones concentrated on Belgrade. Many waves of German bombers approached Belgrade, with the first one being composed of Ju.87 Stukas with a fighter escort. All the Bf.109E of the 51st Fighter Group scrambled against the first wave and soon the 32nd Fighter Group joined to support them. The pilots of the 102nd Squadron of the 51st Fighter Group claimed to have shot down seven German aircrafts at the cost of five of them. The pilots of the 32nd Fighter Groups' Messerschmitts claimed to have shot down four German Bombers at the cost of two fighters down, although it seems that many more Yugoslav fighters were damaged and hit, some of them even had to force land in the Italian Albania. As a curiosity, Yugoslav Bf.109Es received anti-air fire from Yugoslav guns too as the AA crew on land were unable to distinguish between German and Yugoslav Messerschmitt Bf.109s.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_operational_history#Combat_service_with_Yugoslavia
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Bf_109_in_Yugoslav_service
3. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 44 - Messerschmitt Bf-109 in Action Pt.1
4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
No comments:
Post a Comment