Jonny Fest - comrade of Heinz Knoke mentioned in "I Flew For the Fuehrer"

[Johannes]

Hi, so officially Knoke was a Nazi! Seems that Nazi's were particulary liable to fraudulent claims if as suggested Nowotny was, and Dickfeld was a Nazi until his death aged 99, and his I would say were suspect! With Knoke I think he did not make fraudulent claims, more he exagerated post war his totals, his book lists 33, so I guess we must assume that is what he claimed un-officially, though his book contradicts as on page 184 he states fifty-two shoot downs, his log-book survive's, but this seems to come purely from his own lips, with no supporting evidence. Generally Jg1/Jg11 were pretty honest. I also think that Nazi's got more than there share of decorations, if Knoke had only fifteen confirmations, even his thirteen viermots wouldn't generally warrant the Ritterkreuz, and his Deutsches Kreuz in Gold is not recorded in the book on the subject......but neither is Hermann Graf's, and both are known to have worn them!

Regards

Johannes