Bf110 scoreboard

[Andre Stewart]

Hello Dean,

Since no one has responded to your post so far, I thought I might include my own "2-cents" bit on the topic:

I'm familiar with the Bf-110 scoreboard you refer to and yes, the dates are very clear. But in my opinion, this is not the aircraft of Lt Kuno-Adelbert Konopka; I believe it's that of Lt Boetho Sommer. For comparison, I've listed out the dates below:

Bf-110 fin victories: (1) 15.05, (2) 20.05, (3) 21.05, (4) 21.05, (5) 14.06, (6) 10.07, (7) 18.08, (8) 18.08, (9) 1?.0? [not clear]. 3 balloons - all 11.06

Konopka claims: (1) 21.05, (2) 14.06, (3) 22.06, (4) 10.07, (5) 18.08, (6) 18.08, (7) 26.08.
Konopka's Bf Eiberg made 2 claims, on 2.09 and 25.09

Sommer's claims: (1) 15.05, (2) 20.05, (3) 21.05, (4) 10.07, (5) 18.08, (6) 18.08, (7) 11.09, (8) 27.09, (9) 27.09
The Bf that Sommer was flying with when captured [Uffz Paul Preuler] did not make any known claims. Any other "regular" Bf is not known to me.

So it would seem that the photo was taken around mid-Sept, after Sommer's claim on 11.09. Except for the 2 additional claims (21.05 and 14.06) there is an exact match with all the rest, and it is likely that "no.9" on the a/c fin is most likely 11.09.

Regarding the additional claims, I believe the info we have on this unit's victories (from the microfilms and other sources) list only the CONFIRMED victories. I say this for 2 reasons:

1) In Edition #10 of the Luftwaffe in Focus magazine, the tail of Lt Kurt Sidow was identified, but it carried 12 victory bars, while Sidow is credited with 10 kills, and again his Bf made no claims. So there are also 2 "missing" claims here.

2) In the RAF Interrogation Report A.I.1.(k) 738/1940, there is mention of a diary kept by a crewman of III./ZG26, in which it is stated that as at 18 Aug, the Gruppe had achieved a total of 132 victories. The m/films and others list 120 kills until that date, so it is very likely that 12 claims were not confirmed, among them 2 for Sidow and 2 for Sommer.


Andre

P.S. - there is no known record of the balloon claims, so this must remain "open".