[Jim P.]

No one is pretending - and it has nothing to do with 'political correctness'. As I said in my original response, document the claims, the losses, match up where possible and move on to the next air battle. Overclaiming was/is a fact, from all combatants, from all sides - get over it. Claims are just that, CLAIMS. Calling anyone from anyside a liar, dishonest or whatever, particularly if they're deceased and can't defend their actions is what is dishonest. It just seems totally preposterous to me that here we are 60-70 years after the fact passing judgement on life and death events that we can't possibly comprehend. And video games don't count. Air combat as it was in WW-I or WW-II does not and will not ever happen again. All these guys had big brass cojones going face to face with, or wading into a melee with numerous opponents. Nowadays it's done with a missle from several miles away - not to take anything away from the courage and skill of modern day pilots. The other guys have missles too. There were no heads-up displays or such back then, and even the NF radars were rudimentary at best compared to today. That the officialdom from the RAF, the USAAF, the LW, the USSR or any other participant credited a CLAIM was not, ultimately, the fault of the claimant. The other stuff is just so much BS.