[Laurent Rizzotti]

Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

From my own experience with books and documents, overclaiming in the air is nothing compared to overclaiming in the ground. Overestimating the enemy losses by 5 or 10 was usual. Like being attacked by a force estimated to be a battalion and claiming 500 enemy dead.

As for Rudel, the "legend" is probably too great to be true, but still he flew 2500 missions, so I think his real score should still be impressive, even if far less than 500 tanks. And actually I think judging from the air if a tank was destroyed or not, especially while under fire of AA defences, was probably way more difficult that what the book says (I have the French version). So Rudel might have been an optimist claimer, considering each tank he attacked as destroyed if he could see fire or smoke around it.

I find your article especially interesting because they are IMHO too few written on the effect of the air attacks on the ground. I was for example very disappointed that the 2nd TAF series of book was focused at 95% on air losses and air claims, while only listing ground targets and their eventual losses (or claims from the RAF pilots), while the 2nd TAF first work was to attack ground targets, not to defeat the Luftwaffe.