Some interesting moments from book:
1. Shooting the bailed pailots. Behaviour of many Luftwaffe fighter pilots, shown later in 1941-43 on Ostfront seems appear first time in SCW:
When Gunther Lutzow became StaKa 2.J/88, usual practice of him and pilots of his staffel was shoot all bailed Republican pilots on parashute. In book listed many occasions, when crews of SB's and I-15's and I-16's, who were shot down in aircombat against Lutzow's Staffel, were shot in parashute. It could be only german pilots, because in most of accasions there were no spanish and italian pilots involved in those particular aircombats.
2. "Piss off" the mission objective and "Kill hunt". Becaviour of MOST of Luftwaffe fighter pilots during 1943-45 on Ostfront:
Harro Harder, in fact the most effective Legion Condor fighter pilot (11 claims, "confirmed by Luftwaffe HQ" and in fact 7 PERSONNAL victoryes confirmed and 4 NOT confirmed by Republican reports), got 6 (of 7) confirmed victoryes by following way:
In combat missions (every of them - Escort missions or Patrool) he didnt care about his mission task, but just hunt for victoryes.
Escort missions: task was to protect formation of Ju52's or He111 from enemy fighters, and LET THEM ATTACK THE TARGET AND DROP THE BOMBS IN IT. In this kind of missions, he stood very high over bombers, and did not react on I-15/I-16 attack. Ju52 usually dropped bombs and turn back. after it opponents start "dogfight", mostly FiatCR32/He51's vs I-15/I-16's.
Patrool missions: insted of attcking SB's or I-15/I-16's, he followed them, waiting a "right" moment, and dont care that SB will hit theyr target.
Harder stood over them all. Then, after he saw damaged "red" aircrafts whis visible smoke trail (or waited untill "reds" will run out of fuel and managed to turn home) he followed his spotted victim to base airfield. When pilot of "red" aircraft started landing - Harder attacked defenseless aircraft. In that case, aircrafts crashed for sure, and he was the only pilot who was shooting on it. Thats why he have so high "confirm" rate. No "shared" victoryes for him (as it was usual for many onther "Legion Condor" pilots), only personal.
3. Overclaim rate of some aces. Following table will show some light on it.
There were facts with aircombats with no losses from Republic side (or several - 3-4 bullets his in wing/tail) and the same time 5-9 Legion Condor claims during that Luftkampf. "Hartmannism" began not in 1943, but in 1938
Name (Legion Condor Data - CLAIMED) = (Republican Data - in FACT)
W. Molders - (14 conf + 1 unconf) = (5 pers + 9 shared + 3 uncon)
W. Schellmann - (12 conf) = (4 pers + 7 shared + 1 uncon)
H. Harder - (11 conf) = (7 pers + 4 unconfirmed)
P. Boddem - (9 conf + 1 unconf) = (1 pers + 2 shared + 7 unconf)
W. Ensslen - (9 conf) = (1 pers + 3 shared + 4 unconf)
W. Oesau - (7 conf + 2 unconf) = (2 pers + 5 shared + 2 unconf)
R. Seiler - (9 conf) = (1 pers + 2 shared + 6 unconf)
O. Bertram - (6 conf + 3 unconf) = (3 shared + 6 unconf)
H. Ihlefeld - (7 conf + 2 unconf) = (1 pers + 3 shared + 5 unconf)
W. Grabmann - (6 conf + 1 unconf) = (1 pers + 4 shared + 2 unconf)
K. Rochel (6 conf) = (2 pers + 4 shared)
H. Tietzen - (5 conf + 2 unconf) = (2 shared + 5 unconf)
G. Lutzow - (5 conf) - 2 pers + 2 shared + 1 unconf)
G. Braunshirn (4 conf + 1 unconf) = (5 unconfirmed)
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Legion Condor Data Claims:
(conf - confirmed by Legion Condor HQ)
(unconf - not confirmed by Legion Condor HQ)
Republican confirmation:
(pers - confirmed by Republican losses as personal victory of pilot)
(shared - confirmed by Republican losses as shared victory of pilot)
(uncon - not confirmed by Republican losses )