[Alex Smart]

Hello Chris,
I would not think there was "massive overclaiming" in this case.
Each claim was confirmed, the reason could be quite reasonable.
Each Pilot's claim was witnessed hence "confirmation ".
This was due most likely to the B-17 that each Pilot claimed individually was most probably hit by more than one Pilot and the B-17 was seen to go down, or explode by each Pilot that had attacked a B-17 .
Hence each pilots claim being confirmed.
But in fact they had hit the same B-17.
So six claims but only three B-17's actually lost.