[Larry Hickey]

Kutscha,

Thanx for your comments. I'm aware of the sources that say "Amiens-Glissy" as a I./ZG2 base during this period. However, Gerhard Stemmer says that there is no evidence that I./ZG2 was ever based there. He has provided a very detailed list of bases for 1940 that I gave in my other post relating to this subject last night. I consider Gerhard's data much more reliable information than the other sources. So we are back to trying to establish where in the St Aubin-Thiberville area the airfield was where I./ZG2 was based.

I./ZG2 is a very difficult unit as apparently most of their historical records, including most of their victory claims did not survive the war. We know less that half of those, and the "turks" (estimated) claims list created by Hans Ring have not turned out to be reliable. The detailed scores of a couple of the unit's pilots that have become known since these were compiled have served as a cross check and Ring's estimates for these same pilots have all turned out to be inaccurate . So it doesn't surprise me that even the airfield locations for I./ZG2 are also incomplete or inaccurate. With the EoE Project, we're trying to rectify this as much as we can, but the absence of data will only allow our team to take this so far.

Anyone who has items such as FB, or even NJG victory claims lists that take ex-I./ZG2 aircrew men back to their service with that unit, may be the only sources we ever have to improve the victory data for that unit. I keep hoping that someone will turn up a contemporary victory list, but as time passes and nothing surfaces, that is appearing less and less likely.

As I've posted before, we have similar problems with the 1940 victory lists for Gruppenstab and 14.(Z)/LG1, II./ZG1 (later III./ZG76), Stab, and II./ZG2 (ex I./ZG52), Stab, I and II./ZG26 and I./ZG52 (later II./ZG2), and III./ZG76 (ex-II./ZG1) making it unlikely that we will ever get an accurate and complete listing of "official" LW victory claims for the Zerstörer units during 1940. The only progress that we've made on this in several years are for individual pilots, such as Eduard Tratt for I./ZG2 and Elstermann for II./ZG2. Unless someone is sandbagging this info somewhere, a comprehensive resolution for any of these units now appears unlikely. If anyone has even individual scores from hard sources for any pilots from the units listed above, I'd sure appreciate hearing from them.