Walter Bohatsch 5./JG3

[Michael Young]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help with the date of Walter Bohatsch's 1st "kill"?
The date is listed as 4 September 1942 (a MiG-1, 1510 hours) and also as 17 April 1943 (LaGG-3, 1503 hours) in the Jochen Prien books.

Thanks in advance, Mike Young

[Johannes]

Hi Mike

Bohatsch was born on 14th January 1921. He was with training from June 1942 until 15th February 1943 with Jfs2 and Jfs5 before joining erg./Jgr.Ost.....which answers your question. He made at least thirteen claims that were confirmed. The first was 17th April 1943, the last with Jg3 was a B-17 on 29th April 1944.

Previously before the discovery of the micro films in 1999 there was a list of Staffels with claims with only Date and time details. I assume your information is from an earlier book where he guessnimated the claimers, his resent works are almost perfectly accurate with the exception of Jg2 over Africa.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[Michael Young]

Thanks Johannes. Yes the original 1st "kill" date was from his JG3 history books, which predate his Jagdfliegerverbände books.

Kind regards, Mike

[kaki3152]

Johannes,

Your statement about JG-2 brought up a question I have.

Why is JG-2 the one Geschwader with the only unreliable data set?
Is is the JG-2 detachment in Africa that has incomplete data?

I also remember reading somewhere that JG-77 was the one Geschwader that had its victory claims most drastically revised after the discovery of the microfilm victory list. Can you verify?

Thanks,

Carlos

[Johannes]

Hi Guys

Yes, all pre micro film discovery units claims will be dramatically changed from the old Date/Time/Type data, not Jg77 in particular. With some units photo's of old Victory Boards survive for earlier periods, though these often don't verify if they are confirmed or not, though I remember that Jg27's do give this detail and that Werner Schroer's first couple were unconfirmed, though they did fall as he was a very honest claimer! Herr Prien had matched up as much as he could using logbooks, but not all survived. Regarding Jg2 over Afrika. I believe Herr Bock who did the micro films reading had a corruption or mis-sort in his excel file........all the information is there, but the claimers names are attributed to the wrong claim details. Herr Prien is looking into the matter!

Kind Regards

Johannes