Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Hello Vin,

you may be right about Dickfeld:
http://luftwaffe.cz/dickfeld.html
but I included onyl those aces with 5 or more kills scored in the plane type.

Hello Nick,

a He 111 turned into a night fighter ? Fascinating !
However this website
http://luftwaffe.cz/doring.html
indicates three TB-3 kills by night and 7 MiG's by day.

Cheers,

Michael

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Given that Gebhard Aders' book is so old, it may well be out of date info. But some sources credit him with as many as 10 Soviet night kills.

Perhaps a good decider will be Theo Boiten's upcoming multi-volume set on the Nightfighter force.

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

If it did in fact happen, it would have been in the second half of 1942, and going by III./KG55 dispositions the period may have been only from around 25 August to 25 October.
The He111H-6 did have a nose mounted 20mm cannon as an option, and that would have given it some punch, but there were also field modifications made.
I've attached a pic of one as an example. This one supposedly flew in the Moscow sector in late 1942.
Cheers
Peter

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Good evening Peter, Nick and Vince,

Georg Brütting writes that Arnold Döring flew as an observer from November 1940 until Summer 1942 in 9./KG53, after that one year in KG55. 348 missions as Kampfflieger, 10 kills as Kampfflieger in the East.

Hugh Morgan and John Weal write that Rudolf Schmitt's He 162 claim was not allowed and credited to a flak unit instead.

Greetings from rainy Brandenburg,

Michael

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Thanks for the clarification, Michael. When I corresponded with Dickfeld, he wrote that there were several claims with JG 'Hitler Jugend' which were of course never confirmed.

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Good point. I checked Barbas (would rather do that than consult John "plagiarism" Weal any day...) and it states what you said about the victory being disallowed and credited to the Flak unit. It might still be worth annotating in your lists because after all, what official confirmation would Dickfeld's claim have received in comparison?

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Good evening Vince,

you corresponded with Adolf Dickfeld ?
And he said his Hitler-Jugend claims were unconfirmed ?

Just checked that he reached the age of 99 years (!)

Cheers,

Michael

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Hum... These claims by Dickfeld are like the one by Ihlefeld (the difference is that Ihlefeld did not aknowledge it), pure fantasy. JG 200, JG 80 or JG "Hitler Jugend" was just a paper unit... and not for a long time !

The only know claim was as you guys said by Rudolf Schmitt but he only claimed a "damaged".

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Exactly, some very basic research (not just believing whatever appears in a book) will show how unlikely Dickfeld's He 162 stories were.

Re: German day fighter top aces by plane
 

Good morning,

I think Dickfeld isn't even mentioned in the OSPREY volume about the He 162.
https://www.amazon.de/162-Volksjager...C3%A4ger+units
Hmm, I wonder if an aircraft of such extremely limited service deserves book in the OSPREY Combat Aircraft series.

Kind regards,

Michael