Originally posted by hogenbor
I did. Apparently they were used by PVO units (Anti-Aircraft Defence). Don't know much about the organization within the Red Air force, so I do not know if this means they did not see combat.
Still quite surprising, as is the fact that it even received a Nato code name (Fred).
I posted this in a different thread a few months ago:
P-63C deliveries started in March of '45, but over 1,300 P-63As were delivered before the end of 1944. I have a photo of dozens of P-63As in Soviet colors on the ferry field at Fairbanks, Alaska. The photo was taken in the September of 1944.
Oleg Maddox has dug up references to P-63As being flown against the Luftwaffe in late 1944, with at least one pilot named Devitaev having been shot down by ground fire in December of '44. This limited use may have been part of the Soviet's combat evaluation of the King Cobra. Two squadrons were based near Moscow in late 1944, and may have been rotated into Poland to combat test the fighter.
Maddox provides this information:
My wife is from Germany. Her uncle was a young Luftwaffe Leutnant in charge of an anti-aircraft battery during the war. When we visited Germany this past autumn (he now lives in M?hlheim a. d. Ruhr), he and I talked about some of his war experiences. He told me that in late 1944 outside of Konigsberg (Kaliningrad), his unit was attacked by a flight of P-63s at low level. When I asked him how he knew for certain that these were P-63s and not P-39s or some other type of aircraft, he said:
"Our unit was highly skilled and trained in aircraft recognition...we had to be able to identify all types of aircraft so we would not shoot at friendly planes...we had been briefed that the Russians were receiving P-63s from the Americans and we had studied photos and drawings of them. The P-63s flew over us at only about 15-20 meters that day. I thought they were Airacobras at first, but then I noticed the wing planform was different from the P-39 and I could see the half-exposed tires in the wheel wells. When one of the planes went into a steep banking turn, I could see the taller vertical fin and noticed an ADF loop antenna behind the cockpit, which had never been seen on the P-39. I know for a fact that these were Kingcobras. I even stated this in the report I filed to my command after the attack."
So, the evidence is mounting that P-63s saw limited service against the Luftwaffe. I have seen the testimony of several German pilots who believed that they encountered P-63s. One stated that the "These new Bell fighters easily climbed away from our Focke Wulfs." P-39s don't out-climb 190s. P-63s out-climb them handily. Fully fueled, the P-63 can get to 15,000 ft in 3.5 minutes, which is averaging nearly 4,300 fpm!
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My regards,
Widewing
