[Johannes]

Regarding matching claims:-
Personnally I can check only those in the West, so I rely on other people's checking for the East. However I do have complex biographies on 2500 + aces, and anopther 5000 scoring non-aces, and those that I know to be fraudulent in the West all show the same pattern to there claims, Hartmann shows this pattern, Rall does not, however as with Marseille it doesn't mean so it must be, but shows that he probably is! Also when somebody is reaching a significant number i.e 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 they seem to have more big days, seems that all the pace setters(expect Molders) seem to be dodgy i.e Gollob, Graf, Nowotny, Hartmann, especially when you get one ace Schwarm(think of Nowotny), or even Staffel(think of 6./Jg5) also Hartmann did join the Karaya Staffel(think of Graf). Gollob made huge daily claims to reached 150, yet when he flew for a day with another Geschwadeder and wingman(Petermann) he makes just a single claim, I would guess because he didn't know Petermann, so I would guess this one is honest. Look at Galland and Priller, just two or three for there best day, then look at the fraudster, Rudorffer, Wick,Wurmheller, Buhligen, all have big days in the West!
Also the same person who stated "80" for Hartman, states that Lipfert's were very accurate/honest...............and you've guessed it Lipfert's claim pattern would suggest he was honest.

So to summerise, Hartmann's pattern of claims suggest that he only should be a fraud, plus his two years of teriffic claiming seem to have be examined against Russian losses and we are told "80", I would think this excludes his first few earlier claims, and those in 1945!, which would actaully still bring him upto "100+), in fact those for 1945 could not have been included in the scrutiny, as the actually dates/time/place and aircraft type are very uncertain!

Johannes