[Johannes]

Hi Guys

Sorry to be so long in replying, only something strange happened. I replied about having the wrong date, it was actually 25th July 1941 whilst Villing was on a reconnaissance mission with Carganico, attacks were at an altitude of about 1200 metres. Villing states that he didn't see the third(his second) go down, but soldiers on the ground did.

Strange thing, my reply didn't come up on the thread(so can't view them), or the three replies I got to it, these are still missing this morning, but later ones have come up. Thanks to you all, even the fuel tank location was very helpful, it looks almost certain these were Catalina's of some variant.

Question to Russian losses expects is, do these losses make sense? Somehow I don't think it could be over-claiming as Carganico didn't seem to like Villing at all, he used to shout abuse at him, and Villing made matters worse by standing-up to him, and playing him at his own game. This can lead us to another query, Carganico had such a rage with Villing once that he follows Villing in to land, then lifts his undercarriage immediately after landing and bellies his Bf109 ! I think perhaps this is a mistranslation, looking at the Bf109 and the way the "legs" spread surely the weight prevented this?

So Brian, no I have not seen your reply, the last I saw yesterday was about the fuel tanks, which looking at the Catalina made sense to Villing's attack as the wings were on top of the fuselage, thus I believe Villing was talking about this and not between two engines on the same wing.

Grateful to you replies, even those I havn't seen.

Kind Regards

Johannes