Hartmann: claims vs. victories

[Johannes]

Hi Guys

In my opinion Hartmann worked his "over-claiming" initially with 7./JG52 with Werner Puls before being joining 9./JG52.

If our Russian losses experts are correct(and we have nothing to dispute this) then 9./JG52 claims are less reliable, one could say "over-claiming" had been going on there throughout 1942.

In my opinion Hermann Graf worked his "over-claiming" initially with Leopold Steinbatz, Heinrich Füllgrabe, Friedrich Brückmann ans Ernst Süß. Then there was a change in August/September 1942 to Johann Kalb and Hermann Wolf.

When Hartmann joins 9./JG52 in my opinion he continued his "over-claiming" from Autumn 1943 until January 1944 with Herbert Bachnick and our old friend Hermann Wolf, after this time there is no obvious alliances, Hans-Joachim Birkner is alleged to have been his longtime wingman, but there is not much evidence of this........yet still the "over-claiming" went on.

How did Hartmann know that he could rely on wolf, some kind of masonic handshake?

Kind Regards

Johannes