Hartmann: claims vs. victories

[Stig Jarlevik]

Originally Posted by BenFolk

Hi

Such losses were not recorded in Russian documents. Most of the time the planes came back by truck or pulled by a tractor.

So an aerial victory for the Germans, but not an aerial victory for today's historians.

Regards
BenFolk

Two points

One
A very good way of hiding away post war research. If this is correct that the Russians never recorded force landed aircraft and their repairs, there are surely thousands of German claims which can never be verified.

Two
And why should not such an aircraft not be counted as a valid German claim?
As far as I go, the only mistake made by the Luftwaffe was not to locate the damaged aircraft and strafe it to destruction.

Oh and Gabor, regarding a flat tyre, I can assure you it can easily wipe out your car, depending on where you get it.
I was some 25 km away from any useful place on Iceland when I got one. The wheel had of course been attached by a machine and was totally stuck.
I had to drive some 13-14km on that tyre before reaching some help from a by passer. It took both our strength to get that wheel off.
Incidentally you can assure a rented car for practically anything you can imagine on Iceland, except one thing....flat tyres.....

Cheers
Stig