Hi, all
In my opinion, the loss records are very good as a source for what happened. Recollections and witness reports are at best a hint to what might have happened, and dates given must be recorded in writing to be at least vaguely accurate in my opinion.
Looking at the known details, II./J.G.3 had a total of 5 aircraft damaged on this date, none of these were total losses, and none indicates personnel being wounded, killed or lost in action. The J.G.52 has not reported any losses on this date.
It is of course possible that the records are incomplete, but in my experience, the records seems to be quite exhaustive, at least when personnel losses are involved.
My best tip would be to try to get a fix on the date (was it really the 13th? or was it really the 11th or 12th, but the diary entry was written on the 13th? Or could it be that the capture occured on the 13th, while the aircraft in fact was shot down on the 10th?)
To solve this we should also try to obtain the name of the Oberleutnant supposedly captured, and search among all units in the area. As stated earlier in the thread, it wasn't necessarily a Bf 109 either...
My tip is in fact that it is a FW 190A-5 we are talking about here... and that the confusion stems from the fact that the Oberleutnant flying this and listed as missing was named Messerschmidt...
http://www.ahs.no/ref_db/lw_loss_pub...?lossid=107195
Kind of a cute explanation isn't it
But - the date fits, the unit was in the correct area.... but of course I have no idea if the fate of this officer has been described in other publications, and thus will not fit to those reasons...
Regards,
Andreas