Erich Hartmann: verifiable claims

[Broncazonk]

Originally Posted by HGabor

The soviets had quarterly plane 'inventories' in their mechanical papers, planes couldn't just disappear from those lists without showing up in some units' loss reports, etc.

So so simple for a NKVD/political officer to turn an air combat loss into another kind of loss. "Loss due to ground fire," is a well known method. Operational losses turn in to training losses from time to time, no?

The mere existence of the Soviet commissar/political officer/NKVD directorate makes any and all Soviet records suspect. And I'm including weather reports. A Soviet record reporting that the sun came up one morning is suspect on it's face given the historically documented propaganda power and influence of the Soviet commissar/political officer/NKVD.

Bronc