Rudolf Mueller: claims vs actual 'kills'

[Dénes Bernád]

Originally Posted by Nikita Egorov

(...)I personally checked the sources and every document available. Case of misidentification is dropped, because combat reports from both sides coincide, exept the major thing: no plane was shot down.

Just a single comment to this very interesting thread, comment generated by Nikita's remark, quoted above.

I think there is no need to find an aircraft of the opponent actually shot down, in order to confirm an air victory. An aircraft damaged in combat, which either force landed, or even returned to the base in damaged state would suffice.

While researching the often difficult events of 1941, which involved participants of several air forces, I came across many times of aircraft of a certain party being damaged in air combat (which didn't crash) and a matching 'kill' claim of the other party. I would consider those victory claims as confirmed, even though no 100% loss occurred from the other side. This means that the pilot did not 'invent' his 'kill', but the eventual fate of his victim was not fully observed (quite understandable in the heat of the battle).
[Note: this remark is generally valid, for all sides, and it's not specifically referring to the 200th victory claim of Graf.]