[Johannes]

Hi Michael

Cannot remember exactly where I acquired the Oskar-Heinz from, but likely from the mikrofilms, I certainly remember that Gustav Siegried Rodel's full name came up that way. Many, many of these aces are usually known by different forenames, and at least one changed his surname......which baffled me for a while.

Regarding the codes:-

w.b is wirksamer beschuss, difficult to translate as there is no English equivalent but "effective shot" is about right.

v.n.e-a.s.m is vernichung nicht erwiesen or "destruction of aircraft not proven".

e.v is endgultige vernichtunf or "final destruction of a damaged aircraft"

o.z is ohne zeugen or "without a witness"

a.s.m is abschussbericht mangelhalf or "incomplete "kill" report, incomplete report of shooting down an aircraft".

With Bär:-

13th June 1942 a o.z
11th October 1942 a Spitfire w.b
13th March 1943 a P-40 w.b
23rd March 1943 a P-38 w.b
25th February 1944 a B-17 e.v
25th February 1944 a B-17 v.n.e-a.s.m(on microfilm his 181st confirmed)
29th April 1944 a B-24 a.s.m(on microfilm his 190th confirmed)
29th April 1944 a P-51 a.s.m(on microfilm his 191st confirmed)

Why some claims reports were incomplete(a.s.m) I don't know for sure, but Wilhelm Batz had several flying for Stab.II./JG 52, these generally were without a witness, but had witnesses from ground units, other were never confirmed and just recorded in his flugbuch as o.z, which in my opinion means that he flew alone quite regularly with the stab, which often would be very few aircraft flying together anyway. I would be inclined to say that Batz's claims by his pattern of claiming were dodgy, however with the stab at least there is absolutely no reason for a ground unit to witness his claims unless it was honest. On 20th October 1943 whilst with 5./JG 52 Batz even has two o.z-a.s.m that appear on the mikrofilms(his 31st-32nd confirmed).

Regards

Johannes