[Simon Trew]

Again, Tim, thanks very much for your help.

I take your point (and Chris's) about the Frontflugspange. I referred to these (using the term adopted in the ADI(K) reports of 'war flight' awards) in my post of 28 April. A problem is that like the information about the medals (but I think even more so), the ADI(K) reports are clearly incomplete in their coverage of who had what. So although 13 bronze, 2 silver and 9 gold operational flying clasps are explicitly mentioned (24 total for 130 prisoners or 18.5%), it is evident from other information presented in the reports that there were some airmen (possibly quite a lot of airmen) who had flown enough operational missions to have awards of this kind, but for whom no information on this specific topic is provided.

I would be grateful for tips about how to proceed with getting more information on this subject. I'm guessing that it is a lot easier to find out things about this topic when it comes to officers (about 11% of the Steinbock aircrew, as previously mentioned) than NCOs?

I'll be pleased to do what I can to pursue this matter, but I'm still getting the sense that imperfect evidence though it is, the quantity and type of medals awarded (EK etc) is a useful secondary indicator of personnel operational experience. Clearly, one would benefit greatly from knowing the specific circumstances leading to the award of EKs (and I guess there are some TOCH contributors for whom this is a particular interest), but does it seem fair to suggest that if a substantial proportion of air crew had EK 1s, they can hardly be described as 'novices'?? Put another way, is it reasonably safe to assume that they had at least a handful of war flights behind them? Or was it really possible in the Luftwaffe to get the EK 1 without having acquired any operational experience whatsoever?

Best wishes,

Simon