Luftwaffe Experten, Fact or Fiction

Thanks Guys,

I'll lokk into the veracity of the Fighter Command figures, though the author Norman Franks has written a number of WW1 & WW2 books and has a high reputation.

The proble I see with the Luftwaffe cliams, is their inability to physically confirm victories when over Britain and behind Allied Lines.

However, The Schwienfurt raids should have allowed them 100% ability to confirm them, and they still overclaimed by 50-100%

My thoughts on the victories achieved!
Marseille......About 70-80
Galland........About 80
Priller........About 90

Erich, you state many of Rollwage's kills are not confirmed, but the Luftwaffe records seem to credit them to him. (Likewise some of Galland's kills dont appear to be confirmed but are part of his score.)

Through this, I dont mean to be picking on the Luftwaffe, ALL Pilots seemed to have overclaimed.
I'm attacking the system which is said to have been perfect and the mythology which has surrounded them for 60 years.

 

Ali through the official day fighter claims through the BA/MA housed at Freiburg Rollwage only has 16-18 kills as confirmed. This was only found out the last 5 years..........so much for all the Bf 109G-6 hype through his unit JG 53 Pik As ♠

Erich

 

In WWII aerial combat, the sheer closing speeds, confusion and young men's natural sense of competitiveness led to a false picture of claims. And of course, every squadron had it's 'medal-hunters' ( or was it 'sore throat' in the Luftwaffe ? ).

Even at the time, one or two people thought that for the RAF BofB claims to be correct, Southern England would have had to be knee-deep in fighter wreckage. For this battle in particular, aviation archaeologists have been pivotal in determining excactly who was shot down and where ( the results can be seen in 'Battle Of Britain - Then & Now ' ).

 

I've gone back on some of the BoB figures, I find Franks' figures stand up well, some of the variation is where aircraft managed to return to base but were written off or for some crash landings away from base but the Aircraft was salvageable(These could reasonably have been claimed as kills)

But the difference is only 1 or 2.

However, The Luftwaffe appears to have continued in their ways over France and The Western Desert (and who knows over the Eastern Front. I wouldnt believe Soviet figures if they were available anyway.)