[Johannes]

Hi Guys

Regarding "we will never known exactly the totals of pilots".
Personally I was warned-off about mentioning any fraudsters in publications, however sort of got around this by mentioning "his claims match Allied losses well" to those honest guys. A honest guy does not mean all his claims crashed, they were by rules record where the enemy crashed, some I believe thought they had shot down the enemy, but didn't hang around under threat of being shot down by others, I would say if 65 percent of his claims hit the ground, he was honest.

I know others where their claim was "unconfirmed", but has been proven to have fallen, but alas I still have to call in unconfirmed in their biography.

My personal view is that there were so many guys without the Ritterkreuz who were so much better men than Ritterkreuzträger who got their fame by cheating the system, in fact these unsung heroes were more the unsung grinders.....nothing seemed to come easy for them. Fortunately the DKiG often came there way, and in my opinion it is thus an underrated decoration.

I have noticed also that so many more claims in the /west were unconfirmed as opposed to those in the East, my theory is that those in the East were very often behind enemy lines, whereas those in the West had there crash-sites investigated, so the authorities knew almost exactly now many enemy aircraft had crashed(excluding those into water, or back at their home bases).
The most accurate claimers were the NJG pilots, guess a burning aircraft is so obvious at night, yet a crew could work fraudulent claims as they flew alone, yet they seemed honest guys....even the high-scorers.
Your see many a huge-claimer in the East, reduced to the occasional claim in the West, I "think" that largely they just couldn't get away with so much in the West.

Regards

Johannes