Jagdflieger unconfirmed victories and official confirmation of claims

[Nikita Egorov]

Originally Posted by Csaba Becze

Nikita,

BTW to me, the Soviet method is more interesting, because I know less about the Soviet system.
I am sure, that the Soviet authorities know the German official loss reports (mostly via radio and the gap between the VVS fighter claims and the German losses was evident instantly) How was it possible, that high number of overclaims were confirmed so easily? And if the Soviet authorities confirmed kills just over own territory in the first part of the conflict, what about the not found German wrecks (to me, the found wrecks would be the main cause of this rule)?

Csaba

Soviet authorities knew about German losses mostly from recon reports and POW interrogation. As regards to overclaim confirmation in 1941-43 that did not have much importance, since there were huge losses and claims were getting confirmed primarily to offset losses. Besides, in the mess of first two years of fighting authorities did not pay much attention to claim verification procedure. Though, in theory Soviet confirmation rules were very strict. But they were observed only in formal way. Thus, a group which was aimed at finding wrecks of shot down planes could collect evidence of local inhabitants for one plane and confirm several as shot down. Only in 1943-44 with the appearance of guncameras situation went better somehow.