Air combat Italy April '44

[veltro]

Sir,

no one put in doubt that your father-in-law was wounded in combat on the date reported or that he witnessed the attack as being made by enemy fighters (the identification as "Me-109" is of little value, as this was in 90% of cases the usual identification made by USAAF crews or pilots, no matter what was in reality the type of fighters met, as continously verified during my researches...), only that this attack isn't reported by the documents currently available and/or published so far.

There could be a million explainations possible, starting from the simplest one, i.e. that such report hasn't been found or was lost, following with the possibility that, not being filed as a victory, it didn't end in the survived reports.

So far it can only be said that none of the units mentioned (either German and Italian) appear to have reported any such encounter on 28 April 1944, in the area indicated.

The only further data available (thanks to my friend Nick Beale) - bejond the reports and the texts of Jochen Prien on JG 53 and JG 77 and of Eric Mombeek on JG 4 - is that Luftflotte 2 on 28 April effected 184 sorties (i.e. individual flights), while on the 30th Lfl.2 effected 94 sorties. Such data results from ULTRA radio interception reports.

This has nothing to do with putting in doubt the word of your relative, but is the simplest and more honest reply available to your kind question.

Hope this explains a little better the concept.

P.S. Although reported as "Vanette" in the official reports available, the name doesn't correspond to any known Italian locality. It isn't the first and it wouldn't be the last case of a mispelled Italian name in Allied or German reports.