[Johannes]

Hi Guys

So 1966 is the earliest reference we have.....so far. Some kind person did enlighten me to another incarnation of JG51 being Ostpreussen, so Jafü 6/Ostpreussen must surely be associated with/ is JG51. The only claims references I have found for them is on the KBT papers 1945, which list the details with the exception of the pilots names, and in reality they are claimed by regular pilots flying for regular staffeln. There is no reason(in my opinion)for any claims by Tanzer until the end of 1944 not to be on the mikrofilms

Anyway Ernst Obermaier's 1966 work is inferior to the later one, but was the best of it's kind at the time. He just continued collating information over the next twenty and more years, but could not resolve the Tanzer enigma, which he viewed as such. To the point everything after this 1966 publication had plagiarized this work, and I can see why, most of the 1966 publication is correct. Point is that if Obermaier(who was well respected) stated 128, in good faith, then everybody since has duplicated it.

Remember what John Foreman and myself said "For our book to work, you must forget everything before".

So now we know the probable source of fifty years of duplication. So sometime before 1966 Obermaier had some source that led him to state 128......but unclear/uncertain. I assume that Obermaier had contacted many aces over the years, and received copies of many documents. But Tanzer died in 1960, possibly the subject was taboo at the time anyway, perhaps pre unit reunions?

Sometimes for a pilots "100th" kill there was a plaque made, I have never seen for for Tanzer, but also not for many "100" ers, they also become less used towards the end of the war.

It is accepted now that Hans Ring liked to play games with his enormous knowledge, adding made-up data to fact, we assume to see if his information has been used.......perhaps he requested it wasn't used in publications, we just don't really know. I can only guess that this is the original source.

So in my opinion we must now believe that Obermaier was incorrect in this instance, we will be in effect rewriting history. But it would be nice to know where Obermaier got his information?

Keep well

Johannes