Flugbuch Fw. Emil Handt, BF I./NJG3 late 1944-1945 -genuine or false?

[Theo Boiten]

Hello John -I don't know how/by whom these false entries were written in the Handt FB.

@ Johannes -please understand me well, no offence to your work, I do have the highest respect for your meticulous work on the microfilmed Abschuss records. All I'm trying to say is that many earlier works on the Nachtjagd (including mine up until the Nachtjagd War Diaries) are often in part based upon the Ring/Nonnenmacher Abschussliste -which are in part falsified. With the NCA series, we've tried to set this record straight/eradicate as many of the falsified claims as possible.

Cheers, Theo

[Johannes]

Dear Theo

No offence taken, I understand your angle and agree that outside of the mikrofilms things are often still a dark area. If I was to fake something like you mention I would use what is fact, then fabricate areas outside of the mikrofilms, in the case of the NJG units that would be 1945. I have several photos od abschüßetafel of NJG units(genuine I think/hope) that cover the earlier years, but none seem to have continued into 1945. But we are fortunate that you had a better chance of surviving the war as a NJG crew than day-fighters, so better chance of flugbücher surviving, and with three crew members is triples the chances of getting to the facts, also they were most likely to have surrendered not to the Russians, possibly the best was to be taken prisoner by the British who seemed more disciplined not to steal the flugbücher.
I do know that abschüßeliste were issued to pilots, I have one from a SG pilot who was killed a few days before the end of the war, and his daughter sent me a copy covering 1943, it proved like we suspect that the SG units were slack when it came to reporting their claims for the daily mikrofilm sheets.
I do believe though that Leistungsbücher were self generated.

It's an interesting hobby we have, always evolving/improving, but never ending.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[John Manrho]

Hi Johannes,

what do you mean by Leistungsbücher being "self generated"?

John

[Johannes]

Hi John

I have seen some as though written by the pilot.

Kind Regards

Johannes

[John Manrho]

The ones I have and have seen were all made and stamped by one of the last units.

[Johannes]

Hi John

I have at least two hand written Dahl and a JG 5 pilot who's name escapes me at the moment. Naturally they could be fake themselves !

But I know what you mean, like they have been signed-off after the war ended.
What about those pilots who didn't survive the war?

Kind regards

Johannes

[RodM]

Originally Posted by John Manrho

So theo, what do you think of the FB of Fw. Emil Handt...was it created by himself or is this something fabricated by somebody else?

The consistency in the handwriting between 28/4/44 and the end of the war suggests the same person wrote all the entries between those dates.

[Marcel Hogenhuis]

Dear friends,

From our historian point of view such falsified/fictional enhancement of FB's is rightfully disappointing and arousing suspicions.

But there might be others reasons why pilots/Bordfunker have altered their flightlogs: after the war several pilots tried to improve their chances for higher pensions, promotion in the new Bundesluftwaffe and/or starting a new aviation career by extending their FB's. I remember a letter of Wilhelm Modrow to his former Bordfunker Schneider where he asked for input from Schneiders FB to 'complete' his own FB because he wants to join a civil airline.

Whether (and how often) this was practized among other pilots I don't know, but it is another point of view in this subject.

Best wishes, Marcel

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Marcel, thank you for the clarification!