Fighters Over the Desert

[JoeB]

I managed to get a copy of this classic work recently at not *too* high a price, and reading thru so far to the Crusader period I have a question as to the style of the narrative v the sources the book used.

In many places, the book will state that that Allied fighters 'shot down' Axis a/c, but not describe these losses in any detail from the Axis side. In many or most cases Italian a/c are described as 'shot down' but with no mention of which Italian units were involved. In case of the Germans, more than often than not the claims and claimants on the German side are given, losses on the Allied side given, but again German a/c described as 'shot down' without specifically saying whether the German units recognized these same losses. It seems specific personnel but not a/c losses are often given for Ju-87 and Bf-110 units when nothing is mentioned for Bf-109 units except their victory credits.

My guess is that the sources available to the authors back then did not include Italian unit records, and for the Germans included pretty complete claim info but spotty loss info, especially for the Bf-109 units. And, at that stage of those authors' careers at least, they stuck with the narrative style of one-sided air war history books, saying 'shot down' in case of claims where the other side's account was not known. Or am I mistaken and did the authors confirm German losses they described as 'shot down' by British pilots but for some reason not give further details?

I therefore find this book a bit confusing; ambiguous compared to later works by Shores where it's usually pretty clear whether or not a claim by one side can be verified in known opposing accounts or not, and those that cannot are usually not termed 'shot down'.

Joe