Quote:
Originally Posted by Dénes Bernád
Just a single comment to this very interesting thread, comment generated by Nikita's remark, quoted above.
I think there is no need to find an aircraft of the opponent actually shot down, in order to confirm an air victory. An aircraft damaged in combat, which either force landed, or even returned to the base in damaged state would suffice.
While researching the often difficult events of 1941, which involved participants of several air forces, I came across many times of aircraft of a certain party being damaged in air combat (which didn't crash) and a matching 'kill' claim of the other party. I would consider those victory claims as confirmed, even though no 100% loss occurred from the other side. This means that the pilot did not 'invent' his 'kill', but the eventual fate of his victim was not fully observed (quite understandable in the heat of the battle).
[Note: this remark is generally valid, for all sides, and it's not specifically referring to the 200th victory claim of Graf.]
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Yes, Denes, you are right. Every damaged plane that was damaged as result of combat is considered to be the claim from the opposite side. I do not state that victories were invented deliberately in all cases, that can be result of the heat of the battle as you have written. But in this particular case no planes were even damaged and? please, note that magic 200th mark was the first for Graf. For some pilots this race for magic number and neck-itching is the reason for being less accurate.