[Kapper]

Gabor,

Your comment about the Germans avoiding combat in the air makes sense and appears to be supported by known German claims data. Hartmann’s claim is the only claim that is known in this region of the Eastern Front in May 1945. According to Tolliver/Constable, Hartmann was sent on a reconnaissance mission by Graf “to find out how far the Russian spearhead was from Deutsch Brod” (JG52s airfield) when he made his last claim – which also supports your statement about Luftwaffe activities. So, yes aerial combat would be rare as you state.

With respect to the date of the claim, I’m not trying to twist with date errors/changes as you suggest – I’m questioning the validity of the data that everyone is basing their research on. You state that we have to stay with the written claims but my point is that beside the Tolliver/Constable work based on Hartmann’s recollections, written and published 25 years after the event – a book that is full of errors - where is the written supporting documentation that confirms that this claim actually occurred on the 8th May?. – if it was based on hard data such as being recorded in the Unit KTB (last recorded Hartmann claim was his 150th claim on 17th April 1945), I would not be questioning the validity but as far as I can see it’s based on memory 25 years after the event. – Most researcher state that memoirs are generally unreliable for detailed information.

If we’re lucky, Hartmann’s last logbook that was souvenired at the end of the war by his American captors will one day surface out of someone’s wartime memorabilia and answer many of these questions.

Regards,

Craig…