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Galland mystery – 3 June 1940 (cont'd)
Worship?
All right then - but just to please you. Finnish airmen have a good reputation of markmanship and honesty so…
Here is the list of Galland's 14 first victories, all won in the French Campaign in May-June 1940. This list was written and circulated by Galland himself in the years 1980-95 and possibly at other times too:
N° 1-3 May 12 3 RAF Hurricanes
N° 4 May 16 1 Spitfire 5 km South of Sedan
N° 5-6 May 19 2 Potez 63 (most probably 63.11 recce AC)
N° 7 May 20 1 Potez 63
N° 8-9 May 29 2 Blenheims
N° 10 June 2 1 Spitfire
N° 11-12 June 3 1 Curtiss, 1 Morane
N° 13-14 June 14 1 Blenheim, 1 Defiant
MY REMARKS:
Except for the three Hurricanes Galland always gave the correponding details on time and location, like for N° 8-9 "12.58 and 13.04 hrs 15 km (about 10 miles) north of Gravelines".
N° 4: a Spitfire cannot have been South of Sedan on May 16. Spitfires were not allowed to fly over the continent and they didn't have the range for Sedan anyway. So it was some other fighter, possibly a Dewoitine 520. D.520s were very often misidentified as Spitfires or Moranes but were much better than the latter and did'nt have the typical wings of the Spits.
N° 7: newer sources say it was a LeO 45 not a Potez 63. Both types were twin-engined, twin-fin AC.
N° 11-12: as I already mentioned this "Curtiss" was in fact a Bloch 152 and TWO Moranes are perfectly confirmed by French sources.
N° 14: it seems that it was not a Defiant but a Battle.
In any case this list - without my remarks - was circulated by the former "General der Jagdflieger". This man was not a clown writing nonsense according to his fantasy. This document without any doubt can be considered official.
His victories N° 11 and 12 match not only French losses perfectly but their combination, with the crash locations and times, fits the details of French losses perfectly too: first a Bloch 152 near Senlis, then the two Moranes around Lognes/Ozoir.
I'm tired of this now. Some people enjoy contradicting others in bad faith just for fun (not you Matti - I wouldn't even reply). I don't enjoy being wrongly accused of "insulting" others etc. For me this is the end of this not-too-helpful discussion. Schluss, basta.
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