[Kapper]

Franek,

Good point. Only seen in the Tolliver/Constable book and some quoted Hartmann interviews.

I actually believe the part about the logbook being taken by US GI’s to be true, but I’ve always wondered if it was taken by a typical GI rather than an Officer. American soldiers at that time wouldn’t have known who Hartmann was and in general would be more interested in items of value such as medals and watches etc rather than paperwork. An officer may see more value in it particularly for intelligence but what would be the point at the end of the war – therefore it’s either been dumped/burned or put away in some attic/storage and forgotten about.

As to the missing logbook to be a convenient excuse to avoid discussion on actual deeds – I don’t think so. Hartmann’s first logbook with claims up to number 150, was used by Tolliver/Constable in their book. Apparently, he had left it at home at some point before the end of the war, thus didn’t have it with him when he was captured. This is evident in the book, because the first 150 claims had mission numbers (whcih would only been available in the flugbuch) and the detail of these 150 claims have compared very well against the claims in the claims’ films – which was made public at a much later date after the publishing of the book. There are a few differences between the book and the claims files but not many. With this accuracy they had to have had the logbook. So, why would Hartmann make this available but hold back on his other logbook – not likely in my opinion.

Regards,

Craig..