Re: Dallachy Strike Wing and their escort losses (?) on 16 Feb 1945
Yes, Stephen, overclaiming and claiming wrong a/c or targets. It was quite common in the heath of the battle.
About Braham:
24th of March, 1944. He claims a Ju 52 and a Bf 109 at Aalborg. The Ju 52 is correct but the Bf 109 is a W 34. Quite a difference.
13th of April, 1944. Braham claims a He4 111 and a Fw 58 over Denmark. He shoots down a Fw 58, but no He 111. It is probably the same plane.
7th of May, 1944. Braham shoots down a Ju 88 near Roskilde in Denmark, which is absolutely correct.
12th of May, 1944. Braham claim that he is shooting down a Fw 190 over northern Jutland. He had a combat with a Fw 190, but he did not shoot it down. On the same trip he attacked a civilian car (a vetenerian) a couple of hundred miles from the place where the air combat took place.
25th of June, 1944. Braham shoots up a 'german staff car' - in reality a taxi and kills the driver and a passenger.
We have many, many false claims in Denmark. Air combats that never took place or where the opponent was not shot down. Especially the american pilots had a different picture of the ground targets that they attacked. An unarmed civilian fishing boat became a 'German minesweeper', an old age home became 'a German military headquarter with the flag flying outside' (the flag was Danish and due to a birthday of one of the people living at the old age home) and a train was always a troop train. I guess that they saw what they wanted to see. And yes, I have also been in 'a stressed situation' where the situation was quite different from what I saw at the moment.
|