[Andreas Brekken]

Hi.

The entire III. Gruppe was involved in this combat, both 7. and 8. Staffel losing aircraft. The 9. Staffel was not very hard hit within the Gruppe, the 7. Staffel got the worst beating.

I would say that 17 claims vs 12 real losses is a very fair overclaimimng rate for this combat, there would be approximately 25 aircraft in the III. Gruppe formation when they started off, maybe Jochen have further details. It s not unlikely that a couple of these had some mishap on landing and/or take-off, the Bf 109 G was not a walk in the park for (I would guess) partly inexperienced pilots.

The closest I can get for now is the strength return for III. Gruppe two days earlier (20th April) when they reported a total of 43 aircraft, 24 of these being combat ready, but the unit had only 31 pilots, 21 being combat ready, 2 partially combat ready and 8 not ready for combat flying.

So in my opinion the 20+ estimate is as spot on as one can get.

Interestingly the III. Gruppe had a considerable higher number of aircraft and pilots on the 30th! (52 and 43 respectively) but a lower number of these were ready for combat.

Regards,
Andreas B