German day fighter top aces by JG

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by HGabor

In historical research there is no place for outdated political propaganda & fairy tales.

Gabor

I quite agree and I think that the word "confirmed" is misleading if the word the Luftwaffe used was "anerkannt" (accepted/recognised) rather than "bestätigt" (confirmed). I think that maybe we should reserve "confirmed" for the cases where we can confidently match a claim to a loss.

Just about everyone overclaimed — usually in good faith and for completely understandable reasons — so comparing pilots' total claims doesn't get us very far in studying history. Even if we knew the true totals of aircraft each shot down, it would still tell us little without considering how many months/years a pilot spent in combat, how many sorties he flew and how many potential targets were available in the sectors where he served.