Johannes
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Originally Posted by Johannes
There is no proof that Lang made false claims, we would need a sworn statement from his rottenflieger for that, and that would incriminate himself.
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Not necessarily a sworn statement, but a substantiated statement from someone being there at the time would be an indication. I recall on the old forum there was several years ago a quote of a JG 54(?) airman, an ace with 49(?) Il-2 kills, who expressed some his opinions on other aces. I recall he was quite critical on Rudorffer, I think he noted that they flew a patrol and found no wreck following one of Rudorffer's combats. The other airman mentioned whose name I recall was Horst Ademeit, he in turn took victories of his younger wingmen. I have saved the post, but could not find it since.
Is it an evidence? Not sure, but at least it indicates that there was a problem.
Quote:
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Nick states that Lang continues his overclaiming with St.II./JG26, another of his rottenflieger follows him there this is Alfred Gross who also was claiming with Lang at 5./JG54...……….but never in the way Hoffmann did. Anyway one would suspect Gross was Lang's enabler at St.II./JG26, but I don't think this is the case, it would appear again that they didn't actually fly together much, in fact 3rd September 1944 is the only proven day. Therefore there must be another explanation why Nick cannot match Lang's claims in the West with Allied losses, this could be that he doesn't have details of ALL the Allied losses, but actually whereas the Sowiets might be incomplete actually the Allied losses we do actually know. There is another possibility, assuming Nick is correct, and personally I think he is, then it's worth mentioning that those who have deemed the worst over-claimers seem to do this as Kommandeur, now with Erich Rudorffer his claims are linked with Kurt Tangermann, again here Tangermann does nothing before or after his time with Rudorffer, but I don't know but is it possible that a Kommandeur[ATTACH]Attachment 17511[/ATTACH]r could self certificate claims(Nowotny's claims the same as Kommandeur), there is absolutely no connection between anybody within Stab.II./JG26 and Lang! Only other thing I can suggest is that Gross and Lang did fly together, but JG26 being a bit more scrutinising that they claimed together but on separate days as to remove suspicion!
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You can have a look at Andy Saunders' book on Bader's demise. There he analysed every loss and who could have been a victor. It turned out that three Spitfires fell down to friendly fire, thus quite significantly increasing the overclaim of JG 26. Unfortunately no sources are given, but it is quite enlightening.
As to Eder, I have once tried to contact his family, but with no reply. I do not know why, but I am quite intrigued by his post-war whereabouts. He was invlolved in some bogus stories of mid-1950s involving Mike Gładych, and I find it quite intriguing.
Best wishes
Franek