Europe & Cold War Database
European Air-to-Air Victories
By ACIG Team
Oct 28, 2003, 17:22

Last Update: 9 July, 2005

Note 1: This C-47 - and the DC-3 Dakota shot down by KNIL B-25 on 30 September 1948 - was operated by the Royal Indian Air Force on behalf of Indonesian government, which at the time was involved in the war against the Dutch. The DC-3 shot down on 30 September 1948 was flown by Bob Freeberg, US citizen. The plane came down near Begkulu, south of Sumatra: its wreckage was finally found in 1970.

Note 2: The intercepted DC-3s were French-registered, and belonged to the civilian airline Air Atlas, being operated out of French Morocco. the example forced down on 22 October 1956 carried Ahmed Ben Bella, Ait Ahmed, Mohamed Khider, Mohamed Boudiaf, and Prof. Lacheraf - the top five FLN figures at the time, who were traveling from Morocco to attend a North-African Conference, in Tunis. For additional details see article "Algerian War, 1954-1962", in section "Western & Northern Africa".

Note 3: a mine from JP.233 dispenser deployed by an RAF Tornado GR.Mk.1 damaged this MiG-25PD at al-Taqaddum AB while it was attempting to scramble; the IrAF pilot aborted take-off safely

Note 4: this is only a claim. In fact, J.Batsalle was a former pre-WWII Aeronavale pilot, at the time of this incident working for a private airline AUREX: he flew the AAC-1 Toucan on 21 July 1951, carrying supplies and three German Legionaries. The Legionaries killed Batsalle and two other crewmembers, and dropped their bodies from the aircraft while still airborne. Subsequently, they landed in an area held by Viet Cong and requested political asylum. Following the loss of the Toucan, the AdA sent a reconnaissance mission to find the plane: it was subsequently destroyed by P-63s in order not to fall into Viet Cong hands. Irony was that Batsalle and his crew were considered traitors and defectors for years to come: it was not before 1955 that an official Vietnamese document revealed the story about what happened to Batsalle and his crew.

Note 5: The AURI operated only two PBY-5A Catalina amphibious aircraft at the time (RI-005 and RI-006), neither of which was shot down by KNIL. RI-005 crashed due to engine problem during take-off from a lake in Jambi Province (Sumatra). It was recovered and is on display at the Indonesian Air Force Museum. RI-006 was captured by KNIL after its pilot landed at Maguwo airfield before realizing that it was held by the KNIL. This aircraft was broken down for spare parts by the Dutch, while its crew and passengers were captured.

Credits:

Mr. Marc Koelich for additional details about interceptions of aircraft supporting Algerian rebels by French Air Force. Marc also kindly supplied details about interceptions of Indian Air Force Dakotas by Dutch fighters (KNIL) over Dutch East Indies.

Mr. Csaba Becze for informations about the case of fratricide between the Hungarian MiG-15s and Soviet MiG-17s, that happened when these have mistaken each other for a NATO plane they were trying to intercept, over Hungary, in January 1956

Mr. Constantine Pehlivanov for Bulgarian AF information

Mr. Jakub Marszalkiewicz for a report about a case of fratricide fire between East German (or Soviet) and Polish MiG-19s, that happened in March (according to other sources: in April) 1971, when both formations were pursuing a NATO ELINT/SIGINT plane (probably German Atlantic) over the Baltic Sea

Mr. Han for full information about the case of fratricide fire between a Polish MiG-21 and Czech Su-7BKL. This incident happened during the "Zenit 70" Exercise, and developed as follows. The Czech Su-7s played the "attackeers", and were to be intercepted by Polish MiG-21s. The GCI ordered a pair of MiG-21s to be scrambled from Wroclaw AB. When the aircraft of Cpt. Henryk Osierda developed technical problems, he quickly jumped into another MiG, which was otherwise witing on QRA, and was fully armed. Osierda successfully intercepted the Czechs, and in order to bring back a proof he decided to activate his gun camera. The catch was that the gun camera works when the trigger is pressed: Osierda did just that - forgeting about the fact that his aircraft was carrying live weapons. He fired a single R-3S (AA-2 Atoll) missile and hit the Su-7BKL, flown by pilot Frantisek Kruzik. The tail of the Su-7 was cut off and the pilot ejected safely.

Mr. I. Zajac for details about the interception of Austrian AB.204B helicopter by Czechoslovak Air Force MiG-15bis, in 1978.

Mr. F. Ribally for details about the fate of AdA AAC-1 Toucan, originally claimed to have been shot down by AdA P-63s while "attempting to defect".