Spitfire Claim by Uffz. Mutan of II./ZG 76

[Peter Cook]

I have had an email exchange with Nigel Parker, the author of the Luftwaffe Crash Archive – which reproduced the combat report – who states the following:

"Looking at the title of the report it states that it was found on a Luftwaffe airman so I would conclude that it came from air intelligence (it doesn't state whether he was alive or dead, or in fact identifies him). As Mutan was only an Uffz I doubt that he was going around randomly signing combat reports so I would presume that it was his work. Perhaps the person who it was found on was his commanding officer / intelligence officer who had just put it in his pocket to deal with later. Purely conjecture ... If Uffz Mutan's signed the report I can only conclude that he must have existed. If he put in a claim it may be that the report never got into the correct hands to be corroborated before it fell into the hands of Air Intelligence. We can only speculate."

My thanks to Nigel and all the other respondents.

Peter