German overclaims in the East. Hartmann and others...

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Originally Posted by Juha

The first Bf 110 recovered from Far North SU in 1980s or early 90s was found to be hit by MG fire into an engine even if officially lost to mechanical troubles. The pilot had survived the war and was still alive and when asked admitted that the plane was shot down by Soviet AA but under pressure from his superiors he had agreed to wrote down into his combat report the reason of the loss "engine failure".
Juha

Hello Juha,

It seems strange a bit. What is a reason for the "superiors" to hide the combat loss and replace it by engine failure?

Some Russian air war history fans believes that that "everybody lied in the Luftwaffe, e-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y" (as written by forum member Broncazonk about the Soviet Union), but I thought before what it is hyperbolic a bit

In the Soviet Air Forces the situation was inverse - less problem for the commander to report about combat loss than about technical failure or the loss due to human error. But anyway, all losses were counted and cross-checking proves the picture (my experiense from researching the documents about Kuban Air Battles 1943, Kerch-Eltigen operation 1943 and Moonsund operation 1944).

Best regards,
Andrey