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Old 15th April 2014, 05:47
Johannes Johannes is offline
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Re: Ofw. Kurt Welter 5./JG302 Jan-Mar 1944

Hi Rod

Thanks for clearing-up a lot of speculation about true and made-up. The author John foreman has a good expression "Cast in stone" i.e once something is published it's fact, it's "cast in stone" and presumed correct.

In theory claims for 1945 would not have had time to be confirmed anyway, but pilots knew I guess what was likely to be, and what would not be confirmed. Even pilots own claims lists can be misleading, some include u/c and others just the confirmed. I do try to see if combat occurred in obscure cases which made me suspicious of Welter's claims anyway.

Welter's reputation for fraudulent claims would not seem to be a result of examine his claims against Allied losses as he was thought to have been making fraudulent claims by his comrades, and appears to have been unpopular. Many people believe the Luftwaffe system of claiming was infallible, but as we have seen it could be cheated by people working together, strangely nightfighter pilots who had this opportunity didn't seem to do so as a crew, but Welter flew at night alone in the cockpit.

Kind Regards

Johannes
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