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Re: Identifications of German victories over East Prussia in October 1944
"Conclusion: Although reading the available Soviet archives did not allow us to identify the battles that led to German claims, it appears that none of the German claims could be linked to a loss of Soviet aircraft."
Interesting conclusion and (although I have not researched it), I think it can be true. But to avoid the false impression that the Germans just made up their claims we have to admit that very often the German pilots hit their opponents very hard indeed, but some Soviet airplanes were even harder and returned to their bases with serious damages where they were repaired in 1-2 days and returned to combat service. It is possible that in the wild circumstances the Germans could not, or did not want to waste their time (and life) verifying the burning Soviet planes on the ground, so they reported their claims based on their impression which now turned out to be wrong. This could be a reasonable explanation for the numbers.
Gabor
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