[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Johannes

Hi Guys
Firstly Franek it is true that crash-sites were investigated, claims against the Russian's were usually behind enemy lines, so no chance there, with JG2 they claimed a lot over the sea, again not much chance to investigate there.

Overclaim over sea is higher not only because it is not possible to count wrecks but also because no crashsites are not visible, which makes assessment rather difficult. On the ground you could see crashsite, smoke, wreck, etc.

As Nick states Emil Lang was with JG26, yet still managed to overclaim. We(TOCH) had established that Lang had a couple of months of huge claims in Russia, this was worked with his rottenflieger Reinhold Hoffmann a pure case of each confirming the others claims.....mostly non-existant, yet another of Lang's rottenflieger Alfred Gross doesn't appear to have been part of this, when Hoffmann and Lang part company their claims became unspectacular! You would imagine that he would not be able to achieve such crimes with JG26, however he was with the Stab.II./JG26, and very possibly flew only with Alfred Gross, therefore able to maintain the deception within a generally honest Geschwader.

Can you prove that Lang intentionally produced fake combat reports?

As Nick has established II./JG2 had a horrendous record of overclaiming in Afrika, but the JG26 as above......one man making the others look bad. The ever so fantastic claims system should work, but they didn't consider like minded abusers of the system, basically you couldn't do it alone.

A lot depends on circumstances. New environment, enemy's numerical advantage, there are several reasons for overclaim. Before you call someone dishonest you must prove that he produced fake report in bad faith.

As for the Luftwaffe being part of an evil regime, I should imagine that there was a higher percentage of hard-liners here than in the army, but most pilots were not like this and only wanted to get through the war, and many not to talk about it again. Wasn't Heinz Knoke shunned at reunions for his political views! Anyway TOCH is to talk about the Luftwaffe not Nazism., but I have noticed that hard-liners were very often the worst over-claimers.

Despite post-war claims and allegations, no doubt due to requirements of the Cold War, Luftwaffe was considered quite a hard-core formation, and I do not see a pattern of Nazis and non-Nazis do not appearing together. I guess it was rather a matter of personal liking. And I do not see any reason to not to discuss such matters.

regarding other Airforces overclaiming just check USAAF gunners claims 340 claims one day to Luftwaffe twenty loses, and what about Douglas Bader, seems every Nation has it's liars.

There is no problem with overclaim itself. The problem is with your words. What is your evidence that USAAF gunners were liars, or that Bader was a liar? I mean intentional providing false reports on enemy losses.

With Georg-Peter Eder all I am trying to establish is where the twelve jet kills data came from? As to his claims there pattern doesn't look like an overclaimers i.e huge numbers over a short period...….again opportunism with a corruptible rottenflieger, Eder seems not to have used a regular rottenflieger, and as Nick points-out III./JG2 was the least scoring of JG2's Gruppen……………….but unless expertly cross-examined I don't know the truth, and contrary to what you say claims are being cross-examined......by Nick for a start.

I understand that, and and I am fully aware that a lot of bogus information are around, never supported by any evidence.
You cannot fully cross-check claims/victories vs losses without combat reports and narratives. Coincidence of time and place may be misleading. It is simple.

Best regards

Franek