MiG-3 white 54

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
I've found a commented version of a famous image on whose collocation I found different hypothesis in the past. It is from Avions n.158, in an article about the Soviet attack to Japan in 1945.
The caption, in French, is exhaustive.

But... what and where is ?Terrain of Ouglavaia?
Massimo

[John Thompson]

"Terrain d'Ouglovaia" might be an obscure French name for some eastern part of the former USSR - a search turned up only one response. This was a French page describing the 19 towers of the Kremlin wall, one of which, built in 1492, was called "Ouglovaia Arsenalnaia". Doesn't help much, does it?

John

[Renato71]

Hi,
With some help of scrabble I got "Uglovoye" (helps whe you try to pronounce "Ouglovaia" like a policeman from "Alo Alo"? )
A small town that you pass before Vladivostok, in Region of Primorsky (Coastline region):
http://www.fallingrain.com/world/RS/59/Uglovoye.html
http://www.airport-images.com/city_2370063_Uglovoye

Try also "Угловое" in Google map.

Ther is also a village Province of Amur, but the first one has a large airport to the north

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
thank you,
this place is close to Japan and a fully convincing translation of Ouglovaia. I'll update the page on this profile.
Note that the year 1943 makes the white outline on the star more likely.
Massimo

[Libor Jekl]

Hi all 

"Угловое" is also a small town on Crimea peninsula, what I think is more probable option than a Far East location close to Vladivostok.
Despite my respect to authors of that article, here are my doubts:

1. Location of the 6.IAP in August 1943 at Vladivostok - never heard about a move to the Far east, although it might be possible. I remember (unfortunately I do not have my references at hands) the  6.IAP (later on 149.GIAP) was converted in 1942 to Yak-1's and fought in the european section of the eastern front.

2. The photo-caption mentions "emergency" flight, what is pretty strange considering the quiet situation on the Far east "front" in 1943 (the real combat missions came in 1945).

3. The vegetation and the overall scene looks like many others from the Crimea area, but this is just my personal feeling 

So, is anybody able to trace down and clear up the history of 6.IAP? I really don't believe they use the Mig-3 in 1943, especially in the Far East.

Thanks and cheers,
Libor

[John Thompson]

You guys (Renato and Libor) are amazing! People like you make this a great forum. Now I'll try to make up for my lame post about the towers of the Kremlin wall, in a small way - this page:
http://avia-hobby.ru/publ/soviaps/1_50iap.html
...doesn't show 6.IAP using the MiG-3 at *any* time, either before or after being reassigned as 18.GIAP. Nothing but various Yaks, after getting rid of their I-16s. Same story, pretty much, with 149.GIAP.

John

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Libor,
I enclose a table from the article "Aout 1945: L'URSS attaque le Japon!, written by Miroslav Morozov.



As you see, it comfirms (according to the author) that 6 IAP of 7 IAD was in "Ouglovaya" base in 1945. Here MiG-3s are not citated, but we are in August 1945.
At pag.9, he writes that 51 MiG-3s were delivered from the Western front in 1943/44, and three of them were from the Northern fleet (a thing that I've read on other sources too).
In the text, there is written also that the 6 IAP was part of the 7 IABR (later 7 IAD) in mid thirties. I don't know if it was transferred in the west and then in the far east again. He writes about 27 IAP and 43 IAP moved to far east in 1945.
So, the author gives the idea to be coherent and well informed.
In the caption , he gives the date, place and unit and even the name of an officer. So, one could try to check these points, bu the general idea is that he should have a strong documentation, maybe an annotation in the rear of the image, to write so.
For what I know, the image is from Petrov. If anyone is in contact with him, he could ask clarifications to him or to the author.
It's interesting that a town in Crimea has the same name of one in the far east. Who knows if this could be the origin of some mistakes?

Massimo

[John Thompson]

Has anyone else noticed that the image from Avions n.158 posted at the beginning of this thread is slightly different from the one included on Massimo's "White 54" page:
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mig3/white54.html
Several of the people in the photos (inluding Gretchina - compare the position of his left hand from one image to the other) have moved very slightly, as if a few seconds had elapsed between the two images (maybe being part of a "r?union politique" made them restless?? ). Are these images from movie footage (in which case someone who has access to that film might be able to provide more details), or did the photographer merely want a backup shot, in case the first one didn't turn out?

John

[Renato71]

Has anyone else noticed that the image from Avions n.158 posted at the beginning of this thread is slightly different from the one included on Massimo's "White 54" page:
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mig3/white54.html
Several of the people in the photos (inluding Gretchina - compare the position of his left hand from one image to the other) have moved very slightly, as if a few seconds had elapsed between the two images (maybe being part of a "r?union politique" made them restless?? ). Are these images from movie footage (in which case someone who has access to that film might be able to provide more details), or did the photographer merely want a backup shot, in case the first one didn't turn out?

John

Immediately! But you beat me with link. Good job, John!
I have to agree with Massimo and say that the French table is too detailed to be dismissed easily. Many units from European theater were transferred to Far East in very short period of time, so it is possible that 6th IAP was there, but I will say nothing about their a/c, as its very hard to find pics from Far East. I've found more pics of Soviet MiG-15 over Japan (even a footage of MiG-15 over Tokyo!). Plenty of pics of ground troops…
There is some book in Russian about Far East operations. I saw one, dunno remember where, but it was definitely about 1945 operations, not Halhin Gol.

Massimo, if it helps with your research, in book "Trofeyi vozushnih bitvi (Trophies of aerial combats)" following units are mentioned:

6th BAK - 326th and 334th divisions
7th BAK - 113th and 179th divisions
109th IAD
54th GvTD (Guards Transport Division)
21st GvTD

9th Air army and 19th BAK of 1st Far East Front
10th Air army and 18th SAK of 2nd Far East Front
12th Air army, 6th and 7th BAK of? Zabalkayskiy Front
Pacific Fleet Air arm

And the following types of aircraft: "Yak-3, Yak-9, La-5FN, La-7, P-39, Pe-2, Tu-2, Boston, etc."
Interestingly, La-5 is mentioned as "FN" which I found odd as I've noted that in histories of individual units on European theater there is almost no special mentioning regarding "Zero", F or FN subtype.

BR!

[Libor Jekl]

Ciao Massimo 

Thanks for that table and your comments; in the meantime I made a deep raid in my references and found some information on 6.IAP that more or less corresponds to Morozov's article (my knowledge of 6.IAP comes from Shores/Polak book "Stalin's Falcons" and seems to be wrong or incomplete). Obviously, there are confusing data in both foreign and russian books (as usually I would add), not speaking about various tables in russian web sources, but the article in the Avions looks pretty convincing.

Thanks again and cheers,
Libor

[Libor Jekl]

Hi John,

Good point, your sense for even the smallest details is amazing! 
The shot is pretty clear and relatively of good quality, in my eyes is too "nice" for being taken from a movie footage (compare to Baranov's Yak-1 shots), so I would bet the photographer took more pictures...

Cheers,
Libor

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
so I can hope that some day will appear an image of 54 from another perspective, showing the tail of the plane or the nearby ones...
Thank you, Renato and Libor, for your help.
At the end, the caption of the photo looks reasonably reliable, so I'll modify the comment of my profile in the MiG-3 page.
Massimo

[warhawk]

Here's an interesting colour interpretation of this aircraft (Squadron/Signal No.1204 - Early Mig fighters in action)

To me, the option below is more likely, but is this interpretation also possible?
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/mig3/white54.html

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi,
to my eye, the camo color is too dark to match this. The usual contrast in the camo of MiG-3s is much lower on the most of the images. However, the image of 54 is available, so anyone will be in condition to give an interpretation.
By the way, I have the monograph of Squadron/signal, and I am not so enthusiast of its indication of colors.
Massimo

[warhawk]

Yeah, I know what you're talkin' 'bout...