Quote:
Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski
Nick
As far we do not know, if there were any more such documents, so we cannot say if they were unique or not.
As far as I can tell, I have seen odd surviving documents like FC confirmation of 7 Dec 1944 victory dated 29 Jan 1945 (I think) for F/S Bargiełowski. Certainly there were such papers issued for each victory but I have seen only this one surviving. So, I have seen a FC document pertaining 9 Apr 1945 victory of S/L Żulikowski, asking to withdraw claim for probable and to ammend it as destroyed, because examination of gun camera film showed German pilot bailing out - with both versions of PCR included.
Another interesting set is concerning 8 Nov 1940 501 Sqn victory, it contains a ROC report on German crashes which resulted in filing the claim and crediting it to the Squadron, and 1942 amendment, attributing it to individual pilots.
I do not need to mention that some documents pertaining to blue on blue were also removed from files and just few survived.
Again, those are odd documents that survived, and there are some more, but bulk of them seemingly was lost.
Rod
I agree that this is quite confusing but we would have to assume that either Broadhurst provided false information for some reason or that Clostermann faked the document. I do not see a reason for that, hence the enigma.
Franek
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Hi Franek,
I haven't seen the document, so I cannot comment. I don't know if it was a document that Clostermann requested and Broadhurst provided, or a document that Clostermann prepared and got Broadhurst to sign.
I guess in terms of your original request, it's impossible to assess possible Luftwaffe adversaries/victims if a listed claim is bogus and never happened.
At this stage, I know this seemingly applies to the Bf109s claimed on 14 March 1945 and the Ju88 claimed on 5 April 1945. And, of course, air claims need sorted from ground claims.
Cheers
Rod