[Andrew Arthy]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for the responses. Regarding the question of whether balloons were included in a pilot's personal aerial victory tally, I believe the answer is "sometimes".

Looking at a list of all known Luftwaffe victory claims, there were at least ten for balloons submitted as individual aerial victory claims (and thus present in the victory claims microfilms). Nine of those were from the Eastern Front between 1942 and 1944, including the 12 September 1943 claim I included an extract from in my last post. Jochen Prien and his team list at least another eleven, of which seven are from 1939-1940, and four are from the Eastern Front in 1941.

I think Martin's post might be the key. The Luftwaffe regulations regarding claims distinguished between manned and unmanned balloons, so perhaps the type of balloon was the determining factor in whether it was added to the pilot's aerial victory tally. It might be the case that only manned balloons (which were a rare target and presumably only occurred on the Eastern Front) were included in a pilot's personal victory tally. Evidence of this is the comment by the claims adjudicator for the 12 September 1943 balloon, who wrote (rough translation) "In the documents it is not clear if this was a barrage balloon, manned balloon, or air ship". As a result, the claim was considered unconfirmed. All the other claims in the microfilms were confirmed, so the claimants in those cases must have specified that they shot down manned balloons.

Would be good to hear from others who have evidence regarding this subject.

Cheers,
Andrew A.