Hartmann: claims vs. victories

[Kapper]

Gabor

I think there is a possibility that Barkhorn mis-identified his victim. By the Grid Reference, I get is claim location at about 2km South of Kóka – which is on the edge of the AO of where Gv.Ml.Lt. Alexandr Vasilevich Noskov went missing (Pusztamonostor-Dány-Kóka). The time of 10.23 also fits in with the local timeframe of 09.40 – 10.50. Aircraft identification was awful on both sides – the only reliable thing is that it’s a single engine aircraft – Though, from memory I did see once where a two-engined Manchester was misidentified for a four-engined Lancaster – or was it the other way around? Cannot exactly remember.

Also, I note that 5 of the 9 known claims match reasonably well (Lipfert x 3, Barkhorn, & Pohl) – with Barkhorn’s other claim mentioned above, that leaves Hartmann and 2 x Ewald claims – no sense talking about Hartmann’s claim – no new information to change that situation.

As for Ewald’s 1st claim for a Yak-9 at 08.36 this could possibly be another mis-identification but by the Russians (2xFw190’s? could be 2x Me109’s) – the time (is within reason) and type match but no location – from the grid reference it appears Ewalds claim was at ~3km N of Jászágó. There is no location mentioned for the loss of the Yak-9. Does the loss information mention a location?

For Ewald’s second claim – Il-2m.H at 11.06, - same time as Lipfert’s claims but further to the north (not an exact match to the losses) thus I can see why these were credited to Lipfert – could this possibly be the damaged Il-2m.H of Gv.Capt. Georgii Timofeevich Beregovoy – no detail of this (Time/location) is given to match against?

Finally, I’m still wandering about the 15 claims mentioned in the daily report – with 9 claims in the claims microfilm, what of the remaining six? Some possibilities are:

- Claims not confirmed thus not in the claims microfilm?
- Claims by Ground Assault pilots – There seems to be a lot of FW190 activity that suggest SG units – which there is little in the claim’s microfilms for SG units.
- Claims by Hungarian pilots (like the claim for the Boston in the Hartmann issue)?

Do you have the Hungarian claims for this day?

Overall, not a bad matchup considering.

Regards,

Craig…