Kurt Ubben's total, an explaination.

[Johannes]

Hi Guys

Have just received Erik Momeek's latest publications(at lest the European post services are still working) "Am Himmel Frankreichs JG2 Band 6"excellent work with all claims mentioned for the period the book covers i.e 1944. Some very nice rudder photos showing "claims markings", which I have always found very interesting.

But back to Kurt Ubben, in Mombeeks latest "Luftwaffe Gallery"..."Luck, Fate and destiny 2 publication like above there are some excellent rudder photos, there are several of Kurt Ubben;s mounts. It has since the war always been believed that Ubben had 110 victories, whereas John Foreman and myself believed the total to be ninety-three(plus thirteen unconfirmed). Erik's photos lead me to believe the true total is ninety-two confirmed, and thirteen unconfirmed, the 2nd claim John and myself had listed(19th May 1940) would appear to have only been accepted as a staffel claim. The rudder photographs, and artwork show that Ubben included not only in his total, but also on his rudder unconfirmed claims, these he clearly shows marked in different colours. It is also clear that Ubben marked his claims bars with a date for each, and National markings, and these exactly match the mikrofilm entries. A later rudder shows eighty-eight victory bars, but no other details.

Also in this publication is a very useful section on how a claim was made, where to look finding a pilots claims, and all about the points system in the West. An investigation into the claims of Walter Loos is very useful in explaining why so many Luftwaffe aces "totals" are so much higher than actual victories i.e his total is based points not victories. This doesn't explain the Ubben total, that is down to including unconfirmed in his total. Some other high totalers certainly did not include unconfirmed in their totals.

With Ubben I can only imagine that though some of his claims being unconfirmed, that he himself believed/knew they had fallen, possibly he even saw them hit the ground, but had no witness.

The "honesty" researchers can probably workout if Ubben was honest or not. Personally I think so, this is based solely on his claims pattern and large number of unconfirmed claimed, not matching his claims against Allied losses.

Anyway hope this explains in detail why we had downgraded Ubben's 110 down to 92.

Almost every "aces" reduced total can be explained away, Ubben is just one, and in one of several way.

Kind Regards

Johannes