Continuing from Martin,

In the Western Desert, certain Experten concentrated on attacking Allied Fighters/Fighter Bombers. Marseilles only claimed 3 Light/Medium Bombers in his 158 Claims.

von Richtofen defended his record of shooting down so many 2 seater Arty Spotters(or similar) by saying that these were the aircraft that were causing most damage, not the fighters.

So racking up large scores of Fighters wasnt going to win the battle, knocking down 2E & 4E bombers would be hitting the opposition much harder.

Overall, the German Airforce had created the climate where their best pilots could knock down large numbers of the enemy, at all times their Fighters were cutting edge or close to it. They used tactices which, except for the BoB gave them a high chance for safe combat (How often do you read of the "bf109 spurting smoke and diving away to safety" the same tactic used by the Allies in the Pacific to great success) and after 1941 they could generally succesfully bail out or crash land and make it safetly home.

Plus, a number of Experten seemed to have their claims approved "Immediately", IMHO there were some Golden Haired Boys of the Propaganda War. The Luftwaffe approval system was as accurate as the RAF or USAAF system and was full of errors and overclaims.

18 DECEMBER 1939 HELIGOLAND BIGHT

On 18 December 1939, the RAF decided to mount a raid on the German fleet at Wilhelm shaven and orders were drafted for 24 Wellington Medium bombers to carry out the raid. 9 aircraft from 149 Squadron, 9 from 9 Squadron and 6 from 37 Squadron were selected to “Attack enemy warships in the Schillig Roads or Wilhelmshaven. Great care is to be taken to ensure that no bombs fall on shore”

While 24 Wellington’s took off, 2 from 149 Sqn returned to base early leaving 22 to carry on. The bombers managed to successfully fly over the German Fleet, but their Orders about bombing German soil caused the abortion of the raid as the leader decided the ships, tied up in Port where too close to shore to be bombed. It was only after they turned for home did the German Fighters attack.

The ensuing massacre saw thew shooting down of 10 Wellingtons, nearly 50% of the attacking force, however the Fighters claimed to have destroyed 34 Victories, over 150% of the attackers though OKL pruned this down to 26, still more than the force started with.
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In 1943, the USAAF flew 2 raids on the German Ball Bearing plants at Schweinfurt, on 17 August, 376 B-17 Flying Fortress’s were involved, USAAF losses were about 60 B-17’s plus many which were scrapped upon landing. This was a loss rate of around 16%.
However, OKL awarded 94 B-17 and 4 P-47 Victories. Given the ability of the Luftwaffe to investigate the damage on the ground, how do they explain a 50% over claim.

On 14 October, a second raid was mounted, this was an even greater disaster in that of the 291 Bombers sent out, another 60 were destroyed in Combat, nearly 20% losses. But OKL was to excel and awarded 146 B-17 Kills, half of the attacking force, and once again it was within their ability to examine wreckage.

Both raids were intercepted outside Allied fighter cover, so the Luftwaffe Interceptors could operate without continual harassment, so how did they manage to have approved about 250 Kills as against actual losses of 120
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From Desert Warriors by Russell Brown. Taken from the foreward by Bobby Gibbes.
“It was not possible for a Desert Pilot to have a victory confirmed without a witness. Our aircraft were not equipped with camera-guns, so we had no photographic record of combats fought. It was so difficult to get confirmation that on 1 occasion I did not bother to submit a sortie report even though I confirmed it myself afterwards when driving from the airfield at Bir Durfan to the area. I found the wreckage of the bf109 with the body of the dead pilot still inside…..

After the war I became a friend of Erhard Braune, ex commander of III/JG27. In a discussion with him on tactics etc, I asked why the claims of some Luftwaffe pilots appeared unrealistic as they DIDN’T ADD UP TO OUR KNOWN LOSSES.
He told me that these high claims ‘HELPED THE MORALE OF THE GERMAN PEOPLES.”

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Whe're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful wizard of OZ - 6 Australian Infantry Div, Bardia January 1941