Hartmann: claims vs. victories

[Stig Jarlevik]

Franek certainly has a point

I am neither interested in if Hartmann got 352 or only 52, but I am interested in his phenomena as such.

As I see it for pilots to actually ID correctly an aircraft in air-to-air combat was far more based on luck than skill. Where correct ID was made, it was simply because there were very few alternatives to make mistakes with.

When the British for instance suddenly was confronted with both German and Italian aircraft, misidentification increased straight away.

For a German combat pilot trying to identify a Russian aircraft in a split second and determine if the engine was radial or inline was simply ridiculous. Preferred way was to try and catch your foe from the rear, not from the side or above, so looking at the aircraft from a nice side view or straight from above to determine wing form etc was simply not possible.

It is way too easy for us "armchair eagles" to dismiss combat reports just because the wrong aircraft type is listed.

There are even incidents where pilots reported single engine aircraft instead of twin engined and vice versa.

Is there actually anyone here who has some kind of combat experience with aircraft and actually fired live ammo while being shot at by someone else?
I certainly have not....

Cheers
Stig