Group—four were brought down—during an attack on Palermo. On 13 May 1943 Panzer Army Africa surrendered ending the Tunisian Campaign and the fighting in North Africa. At this time, 965 Allied aircraft had been claimed shot down by the Luftwaffe over Africa between November 1942 and May 1943. III./ZG 26 accounted for "at least 17" of these. Invasion of the Soviet Union III./ZG 26 remained in North Africa in June 1941. Stab, I and II./ZG 26 moved to Eastern Europe, still under the command of Fliegerkorps VIII. The wing was under the strategic control of Luftflotte 2. ZG 26 spearheaded the air strikes against the Red Air Force air bases that opened Operation Barbarossa and started the war on the Eastern Front. 5./ZG 26, led by Johannes von Richthofen, a cousin of Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen [who commanded Fliegerkorps VIII] and Manfred von Richthofen, attacked the air base at Alytus, which had the distinction of becoming the first airfield attacked on 22 June 1941. The Soviet Fighter Aviation Regiment's 15 IAP, attached to the 8th Fighter Division [8 SAD], occupied the base. The Soviet pilots managed to get airborne but did not intercept the Bf 110s, but the Ju 87s of StG 2 and Bf 109s of II./JG 27 which were following up Richthofen's attack. The Soviet bomber regiments were active in the first days and on 29 June they caught and destroyed 10 ZG 26 Bf 110s and II./JG 27 Bf 109s on the ground at Vilnus airfield. Richthofen's own log book recorded 29 combat missions for II./ZG 26 in the first 14 days of July 1941 during the Battle of Smolensk, before it was moved to support Army Group North, under the command of Luftflotte 1. ZG 26 concentrated in airfield strikes as Army Group North pushed toward Leningrad precipitating a clash with the 5 IAP. 6./ZG 26 reported a loss on 10 August when a MiG-3 belonging to 71 IAP and piloted by Captain Ivan Gorbachyov, rammed one its aircraft. In a notable action on 12 August ZG 26 destroyed 10 to 15 aircraft at Volosovo airfield while the escorting II./JG 54 claimed seven aircraft in combat. On 13 August II./ZG 26 reported one loss over Kingisepp in action with 6 IAP. Commanding officer, JG 54, Hannes Trautloft, believed the ZG 26 attacks were having an impact. 24 Bf 110s from I./ZG 26 straffed Kotly airfield but