[Johannes]

Hi Guys

I worked with Bernd Barbas on JG 52's claims and can assure you they are more accurate than Tony Woods, primarily because Bernd knew the pilots involved. I will confess regarding fraudulent claims that I have noticed certain traits that would support this, firstly why when a whole Gruppe is in a certain region are almost all made by the same Staffel, also it takes at least two to make fraudulent claims i.e Rudorffer and Tangermann. you can never be sure but I would say the 6./JG 5, 3./JG 54, 3./JG 52 and 9./JG 52 look suspect during 1944, If I had to put money on it I would say that Schall and Anton Resch always seemed to claim together, and are in my mind suspect. Hartmann makes large number claims whilst with Birkner. Another telling point is if they get transfered to the West, or just another unit how different their claims are in volumn.
With 9./JG 52 if false claims are true here, it must have continued for years, so replacement pilots must have been groomed to assist. but generally I have found Jg 52's claims not outrageous. Sad thing is that these overclaimers caused inflation in the medals league, and some appeared to have been so much more deserving than others.
Another thing is that surely the Staffelkapitän if not the Gruppenkommandeur would know what was going on. Remember the four with JG 27 who were reported by another pilot to have fired their ammunition into the desert and reported claims on their return, their C.O immediately started an inquiry, and if you look at their claims they all made large numbers together in a very short time, and didn't do much after.
For most if they were that way inclined it would have to be when the opportunity arose, at other times I guess they were honest by neccessity!

But my only defense for Hartmann is that in August 1944 when he excelerated towards the "300" mark that he was the only pilot in his Staffel actually making claims, so what would be his witnesses motive to confirm his claims, and he also made so few claims over the Il-2, which would make sense, if he had claimed many I would question it as they flew at extremely low altitude, and his claims were almost all at high altitude. Yet Hartmann was not popular with other pilots(for whatever reason) perhaps they suspected that he was a fraud, or perhaps he was just selfish in his pursuit of numbers.......he was also a poor officer.
To actually catch these guys out(and Hartmann should be easy to do, because he was the only guy claiming in the whole Staffel) you would need accurate information on Russian losses, moreover the area they were lost, and accurate claim data, especially again the area of claim, so 1945 would be almost impossible to research as such.

Kind Regards

Johannes