E.Rudorffer early war claims question

[Pieter H]

Hi Evgeny,

Interesting question.
Of your long list of claims I can only talk about the first three, but then indeed some questions as to claim reliability (of the entire I./JG2) come up.

14-5 20.00
4 Moranes claimed by 1./JG2 (Machold, Bertram, Täscher) and one Hawk by Rudolffer. Interestingly, this is the only Luftwaffe claim on this day I have not been able to match to any allied loss. Neither French nor British. I don't have any indication of allied losses around 20.00 GT (19.00 local) on the axis Cambrai-Bouillon where JG2 claimed.

17-5 13.25
4 Leo451 claimed by 2./JG2 (Rudorffer, Keil, Hoffmann, Hermes).
Indeed there was the interception of a flight of Leo451's of GB I/31, who lost 3 aircraft. However, French stories confirm interception by Bf110's too, so one of the three Leo's is most probably downed by a 4./ZG76 Bf110. That leaves two actual losses vs. 4 claims.

19-5 07.30
5 Moranes claimed by 2./JG2 (Rudorffer, Hoffmann, Hermes, Mund, Leipelt). This was almost certainly the fight with 15 Moranes of GC III/1 and GC II/2, but none of these was lost. The French pilots stated they fought against 30 Bf109's, which suggests the entire I./JG2. If that is the case, then interesting to see only 2./JG2 claimed, statistically not very likely.

All later days I have not analyzed, but at least these first three ones don't give a high level of confidence in the future claims of 2./JG2 and/or Fw Rudorffer. 14 aircraft claimed, vs. 2 actual losses. That is 600% over-claiming!

Regards, Pieter