I always wonder why german claims at eastern front where such unexactly when it comes to the type of plane that was shot down.
Take i. e. the 5th July 1943 at Kursk (65 years ago
) where the germans claimed mostly Lagg-3 and MiG-1/3(!).
Only LaGG-5 and some Yak-1 claims seems to be more exactly.
I think this can't be really explained by the similar look of this planes. Especially MiG-3 a little bit different from Yaks.
Even if you mean, germans were such experienced pilots, they don't need to look which plane was at the soviet side, this cannot be the real reason.
Those experts should know the enemy more exactly than others.
At least it should also be a little be important to know, what plane is fighting against me?
G. Rall describes in his "Mein Flugbuch" some statements about Yak-9 and La-5. Same can be said about the works by Schwabedissen and Plocher. I also know statements from GLM and Graf about soviet planes, quite matchning soviet figures. The GLM was at least in 1942 quite well informed about soviet fighter planes (not so about heavier bombers).