[keith A]

Just a small contribution Gabor. Your work on this forum has been immense, and I for one am very grateful for anything you turn up.

This continual reiterating of "misidentification" is just making the obvious more obvious. Frankly I disbelieve anyone could believe a Defiant was a Blenheim, or a P47 a Typhoon. (I'd be interested to know who thought a Condor airliner was a Lancaster and where this occurred, a Luftwaffe pilot obviously). It sounds more like someone claiming a kill and then being told that another type had been seen shot down...therefore claiming that it must be just a bit of misidentification. I know US fighters shot down Spitfires, Typhoons, Tempests and each other in significant amounts 1943-45, and that there were many RAF incidents like "The Battle of Barking Creek", and FLt Buck Casson shooting down WCdr Douglas Bader. I believe Hartmann evidently misidentified some of his kills, made over-enthusiastic damage claims or was awarded the kill for propaganda purposes to avoid unseemly investigations of his veracity. There is a correlation I am sure with Lothar von Richtofen claiming a Sopwith Triplane and being told he had in fact shot down Albert Ball's SE5 (he'd done neither, the triplane returned damaged and Ball apparently crashed accidentally)!

Keep up the good work Gabor. New evidence allows us to better define events, especially on the Eastern Front where details are like gold dust.

The Luftwaffe were not immune from such incidents of friendly fire either, I remember reading of a nightfighter shooting down a Do217 thinking it was a Red Air Force B-25 Mitchell. I wonder if given the propaganda demands of the Nazi regime some LW aces unintentionally counted fighters of their own side in their tallies.

regards

Keith