[Kapper]

Gabor

Excellent – 15 claims are mentioned in the Daily Report, 9 German + 6 Hungarian = 15 claims total

With 8 losses matching or likely matching to claims, plus the unidentified clamant for the third Il-2 loss (5 VA, 12 GvShAD, 188 GvShAP at 13.45) which is possibly one of the Hungarian claims (Ewald time doesn’t match) – that makes 9 / 15 – within the 50 % – 70 % range that I would expect to see for a typical actual losses against claims comparison– with the remainder mostly being crash-landed safe or those that returned damaged. I haven’t included the missing Yak-9 of Lt. Gapanov or the La-5 of Lt. Myakinin in this, due to lack of evidence to confirm that they were shot down by fighters, plus all fighter claims are accounted or probably accounted for (mis-identification). It’s possible that these two may have been mis-identified as Il-2;s but unlikely (though Hurricanes and Defiants were mis-identified in 1940) – I would think most pilots would realise if there was a gunner firing back at you. But until we get further evidence this is purely speculation.

Though it’s highly likely that Lipfert claimed the 2 Il-2’s (say 90% likely), there is still the 4 Hungarian Il-2 claims that we don’t know the time/location of their claims yet, to compare. Duplication of claims is often one source of overclaiming. They may be in the same area of Lipfert’s claims, but if the 4 Hungarian claims prove to be in different area/time then I would say for certain that these were Lipfert’s claims. Until then, to me it’s only highly probable not absolute (100%).

Now the difficult part – I believe that most claims in general are legitimate and made in good faith. If you dig deep enough you will find that something occurred – it may not be a legitimate victory but usually it’s a legitimate claim – a pilot believes he shot the plane down but it makes its way back to safety - thus overclaiming. The difficulty in matching claims is the mis-identification within claims, duplication of claims, the general lack of records for damaged aircraft and the incorrect reporting of events – i.e. pilot getting back (or others) and reporting being shot down by flak but evidence suggest that were actually shot down by another aircraft (and vice versa) – Hartmann after his 90th!

With the Il-2 claims, you have 7 claims for 3 losses – but since 2 are accounted for, we are looking at 5 claims for 1 loss. This aircraft had a reputation as a tough one to finish off – so it wouldn’t surprise me if they were damaged aircraft. As you suggested, damaged aircraft details are generally not in loss reports - something common with all nations, thus requiring a lot more work. Some derail of damaged aircraft can be found in the Unit diaries – are they available and have you had time to check these out yet?


Regards,

Craig…