[Courtois Laurent]

Hello Adriano,

thank you for participating in the debate

One thing is solid, the last plane from Normandie returned at 3:05 p.m. Soviet Time (2:05 p.m. german time).
Jean Tulasne crosses the old Front line 20 km from his aréodrome at 2:50 p.m. (ST), i.e. 1:50 p.m. German time.

After I agree that the time is relative, the pilot can round off, note the time at the end of the fight, estimate the time after returning home. It is also true that wrecks of Soviet aircraft have already been identified on the ground 10 km from the indicated trapeze.
It is also possible that a Normandie-Niemen pilot decided to pursue a stuka to Orel and that Hartmann shot him on the return.

It is possible everything is possible, but with the conditional of a conditional itself resulting from a conditional, we cannot do a proof.

What we know: at Hartmann's time, there are no longer any French in flight, unless we admit a lost pilot.

That the French were not attacked by the JG52.

The French at 2:02 p.m. saw Yaks east of Klen fighting against 2 FW-190s, which were not JG52.
We also know that 9 km south of the place where Littolf's body is supposed to have been found at the time of the fight, a German pilot other than Hartman and the JG spotted by the Normandie-Niemen claims a Yak- 9 (the type of Littolf's plane) 8 minutes after the start of the fight.

So we have a German JG pilot spotted by the Normandy pilots, who claims at the right time and in the right place a Yak-9, and we would have to choose a pilot from another unit (Hartmann), who claims a victory at a less favorable place and a less favorable one ???

Another argument is not the least the 322 IAD loses day there in the same sector as that of the Normandie-Niemen 11 La-5 and despite this we would need to imagine that the La-5 claimed by Hartmann was the Yak-9 by Albert Littolf.

So the most solid hypothesis is that Hartmann shot down one of the 11 La-5 lost by the 322 IAD, which fell in the German lines.

As soon as the Covid crisis ends and the Tsamo will reopen, I will go through the archives of 322 IAD and we will have an answer.

Humbly, faced with the harsh reality of archives,

Laurent COURTOIS