[Nokose]

It can't be said that Stotz and Hahn were afraid to go into combat. As the incident on the 26 Jan 1943 (above) is confirmed by the Soviet naval pilots of two against five. I'm compiling a history for myself on JG 54 for 1942 and 1943 as source material becomes available (which is slow).

As everyone knows Walter Nowotny is not as great a pilot as his record indicated. In one instance it appears he was a wingman and made several claims after his leader went down (none of them true and even filed a claim for his lost comrade). I still don't understand how they became confirmed. That's not to say all of his claims are bad.

Leo, There seems to have been a book written during the war about Hans Philipp's called "PHILLIPP, Der Jagdflieger Hans Philipp sein Leben Seine Erfolge von 1943". I would like to see that to try and match some of story to his claims but it might have been written by a ghostwriter.

Really creditable so far JG 54 pilots were Hannes Trauloft, Joachim Wandel and Reinhard Seiler.