[Russ Fahey]

Originally Posted by Jean-Yves Lorant

Gentlemen,

First of all let me suggest to Michael "Knusel" not to trust this very "unreliable" Czech site.
I prefer the rigor of the list proposed by Hector.
When I asked him specific questions about his book "Rammjäger" in 1979, Walther Dahl advised me to read it again, making sure everything was correct. I had good reasons to doubt. A little later, in discussion with Walther Loos and especially Günther Ritzka, my doubts proved to be well founded.
Walther Dahl's voluntary collision with a B-17 on September 13, 1944 is pure fiction, none of his wingmen remember this event, there is no material loss to the Stab./JG 300 on that day. This voluntary collision does not appear in his "Leistungbuch" which Hans Ring gave me the copy, a document written during the war and therefore theoretically more reliable than his colourful autobiography . He nevertheless inverted the dates of September 11 and 13, 1944 in this document, the writing of which might have been entrusted to a not talented secretary. This Leistungbuch poses many other problems because it is often difficult to find allied losses at the places and times indicated. Unfortunately, I did not access Walther Dahl's logbook of the 1945 war missions, which may have dispelled some of my doubts because even the presence of both Fw. Walther Loos and Fw. Werner Bohnenkamp is an insoluble problem.


Finally, I find it very surprising that the impetuous Inspekteur der Tagjäger was able to perform as many war missions in 1945 and reach a total score of ... 133 aerial victories (see Leistungbuch's last page). But one thing is sure: "Ramm-Dahl" never rammed !


Regards
Jean-Yves Lorant

Hello Jean-Yves,

Yes, I agree, there was never any evidence (aside from his book!) of Dahl's intentional crash into a B-17 on September 13, 1944. Most telling, there is no mention of the "ramming" on that date in his flugbüch. However, Dahl did record claims for an Abschuss & Herrausschutz against B-17s on September 13. Attached is the relevant page from Dahl's FB.

Regards,

Russ