[Johannes]

Hi Michael

I do not know John. You say he has a vast library of books, but books can be wrong, yet must be correct as published.
A lot of earlier works were based on information by Hans Ring, but as stated before he deliberately handed out false information. Somebody independent from myself said he did this so he knew the source was himself, possibly he'd asked that it not be used in publications. He would just as false information to correct information i.e Woidich and his "110" , which had been accepted as his true total for more than fifty years, but eighty-two is what Woidich himself listed, eighty-one(not the one for 1945) is what is listed on the mikrofilms, Hans Ring merely added another twenty-eight for July 1944, which were actually suspicious as they were completely not in the usual pattern of his claiming i.e they were all multiple claims per day, Woidich was never one for that.
I think that Ernst Obermaier's two Ritterkreuz publications may well have been influenced by Ring, the first from the sixties often had little more than a total, often in the eighties publication there is more information, and often significant corrections. This is all pre-mikrofilm days, but I suspect Obermaier contacted the pilots, and collected flugbücher/abschüßelist.

I think also that Ring had much original documentation, so nobody could really question it.

I'll ask my friend the JG52 meister Bernd Barbas if he was ever in contact with Obermaier, or John Weal.

I found the Franz Kurowski books had material that just isn't true, and it's hard to see where anybody would find such information. Also the Toliver/Constable Hartmann book, in this instance I should think they were probably mislead by Hartmann himself, not just the actual claim dates, Hartmann's flugbuch being stolen, so they can be forgiven for that, but the stories like shooting down four Il-2's with one burst, and oh the Mustangs.......or lack of them !

Kind Regards

Johannes