[Johannes]

Hi Guys

I have been investigating Hartmann's alleged over-claiming. If this is actually the case then it is not as obvious as Nowotny and Rudorffer who used specific wingmen to achieve this.

I cross-checked Hartmann's claims against those of his fellow pilots, and certain mans always seem to coincide. However Johannes Bunzek was in the aircraft during many of Hartmann's claims, but when I checked who else was flying with Bunzek it is clear that no collusion is likely between them. Also Krupinski, Roßmann and Grislawski are also not in the equation.

In my opinion if Hartmann was over-claiming it is not obvious because his accomplices seemed to be killed regularly.

The exertion that only eighty of his claims actually fell would appear not to be the case. With many of his claims he is the only claimer, therefore there is no profit for his wingmen to witness his "non kill". However when the likes of Krupinski, Grislawski and Roßmann are with him he seems only to make a singular or small numbers claims, I would guess this means they were true claims. Also on the down side I am suspicious firstly of Werner Puls, almost all of his claims are when he was with Hartmann. Another name would be Günther Toll who arrives at 7./JG 52 from the much over-claiming JG 2 just when Hartmann's claims take-off. I am now looking into Herbert Bachnick and Hans-Joachim Birkner as helpers, but innocent until proven guilty.

The thing is that this is all based on trends/patterns, what I don't have is information on the actual Sowiet losses, which would prove a general theory of over-claiming, but usually not who. But I think I could work-out absolutely who is a cheat. So does anybody with absolute proof of Sowiet losses want to team up with me on this project ? Actually it will also prove the honesty of many large scoring aces.

Kind Regards

Johannes