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Old 29th March 2017, 12:42
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Alfred.MONZAT Alfred.MONZAT is offline
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Re: Top ace of the calendar year

Dahl's (14) victories between 7 July 1944 and 5 December 1944 in JG300 are dubious but we can assume he flew the combat missions.

For the (11) victories between 27 January 1945 and 21 February 1945 it is highly unlikely he was still flying with JG 300, the unit was still on the Westfront in January 1945 and Dahl claims from 27 to 29 January were against russian aircraft. His claims for the 30th were even dubious as the 8th and 15th Air Forces were grounded on that day...
I am surprised Lorant & Goyat mention these victories (I have not my books on hands).

Then he claimed to have served with III./EJG 2 and scored his first jet victories in late March 1945. So in one month he scored 25+ victories and then converted to the Me 262 ?
I am also surprised that Foreman credits Dahl with 7 jet victories.

That's sad that all these researchers, due to the scarce of sources, have to trust the pilots. In most cases, that's not a problem as most talk in good faith. That would not be the first time (during or post-War) that Dahl took advantage of the situation to increase his fame.

It make me being suspicious when hearing from some pilots such as Dahl, Stigler or Galland, so maybe I'm overreacting but for me it make no sense to just copy and past the "128" Dahl wrote in his book. If no original source other than Dahl's book mention victories for Dahl in 1945, for me his score for 1945 is at 0. After all, he was Inspekteur der Tagjäger, a staff post, from 26 January 1945 to the end of the War. But feel free to contradict me.
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