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Re: P-38 losses, southern Greece 15/17 November,1943
Hello Nokose
IMHO its a bit odd that Germans didn’t wonder what happened to all those P-38 pilots. It’s statistically odd if all those 14 pilots claimed to be shot down on 15 Nov 43 would have been killed and only one body would have been found and probably even that that all survivors would have evaded. From strike photo one sees that even the reported heavy overcast was all above the B-25s at least over the Kalamaki a/f (the target). And it was a medium altitude (11.700ft) level bombing attack and bomber crews were able to make observation on shipping and on an a/f on route into and out from the target area, so parachutes should have been seen from fairly far away.
IMHO this and other similar cases show that there were lapses in LW’s theoretically very strict claim confirmation procedures and that there were problematic LW units when one speaks on claim accuracy, like IV./JG 27 in Greece and for ex II./JG 2 in Tunisia. On the other hand there were units which claims were quite accurate, for ex the claims of II./JG 51 against P-38s in Tunisia.
Juha
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