[Johannes]

Hi Guys

Not nice to label the pilots as "over-claimers", which actually is a very mild word for it. My trouble is that most pilots were honest, and I would not like to so label the innocent. However how can it be "over-claiming" if in fact sometimes there are none shot down, or rarely no combat at all.
We have been all over how they could do it, and the easiest way is a Kommandeur with just a single wingman. But in Russia most often it was only a Rotte, Kettel or schwarm anyway, but I would say easiest way is to be a Kommandeur. It would be interesting to know if Kirschner was popular or not amongst his komrades.

Regarding totals, Kirschner like many others was it would seem only be able to "cheat" during a certain period, and then not every combat. Nowotny managed to apply "cheating" every combat for quite some time.

Some really dodgy Kommandeur:-

Rudorffer JG54
Nowotny JG54
Kirschner JG27 + 5./JG3
Hahn JG54, JG2
Lang JG26 + 5./JG54
Weissenberger JG5
Ehrler JG5
Philipp JG54

Kind Regards

Johannes

P.S

Thanks for your input Russell. Think your find Bartels just the same record as Kirschner. I had wondered how he managed it being a lowly nco, but finally saw the link to Kirschner.