[Nick Beale]

IIRC I have Dave Wadman to thank for giving me "Mikrof.Aleks. T-314/197 - Kriegstagebuch Gen.Kdo. III. Pz.Korps, Gen.Kdo. VIII. Fl.Korps, Ia Nr. 977/43 g.Kdos., Gef.Qu. den 30.06.1943"

For 5 July 1943 it lists the following successes: "Kampf-, Stuka- und Schlacht- formations attacked with their point of concentration on the II. SS-Pz.Korps front. Successes: 7 tanks, 30 guns, 70 Kfz, 9 ammunition and fuel dumps destroyed."

Dave also sent me minutes of command discussions for a couple of days and on 4 July Jeschonnek and Manstein are discussing the problems arising from holding the tank-hunting formations back and at 17.10 hours: "Order received from Field Marshal von Manstein, [ref.] Gen.Feldm. 1a Nr. 2201/43 g.Kdos.: commitment of Luftflotte 4’s tank hunting Gruppe will be called for by the Army Group in every instance where a build-up of armour [literally “a forming of a Panzer Schwerpunkt”] by the enemy allows the recognition of an imminent armoured battle or breakthrough."

On the 7th, the report claims 44 tanks destroyed and 32 damaged for the day; 84 on the 8th

So it looks like 5 July was the first day the tank hunting units were committed, so maybe Rudel attached his success to that date (then again, his memoirs are so heavily laced with deluded Nazi BS that it's difficult to know what you can rely on).

(I don't have the minutes for 5 July and nor do I know the archive source details for these items).