Verified Victories: Top JG 52 Aces Over Hungary 1944-45

I was surprised and very impressed by the thoroughness of this book. The book is very well researched and written by the authors. Chapter one is particularly eye-opening. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the topic!

Sehr interessant und lesenswert. Es wäre schön, wenn die Abschussmeldungen der sowjetischer Jagdflieger mal mit der gleichen Gründlichkeit untersucht würden.

Une excellente étude comparant les performances réelles des plus grands as allemands de la JG52 au-dessus de la Hongrie à la fin de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Les deux auteurs ont eu accès aux archives russes et ont pu faire le lien entre les revendications de victoire des pilotes allemands et les pertes réelles des Soviétiques. Et les plus fiables/performants ne sont pas nécessairement ceux que l’on croit.

Proof that the truth finds a way to finally come to light

The authors have thoroughfully researched Russian archives to provide an account of the Luftwaffe claims over Hungary as seen from the other side. The authors have used this comprehensive data to compare German claims of 8 famous fighter pilot aces of II./JG52 group with the losses sustained by Soviet Union. Such detailed work has never been carried out for the Eastern front, at least not in such a systemic way. I therefore appreciated the work performed by the authors, and I enjoyed reading the book (I have not finished, because the book is by essence a bit repeatitive). However, I do not fully endorse some of the research and calculation method used by the authors.1 - the authors will only confirm a German claim if it matches (or potentially) matches an aircraft destroyed on Russian side, because their definition of an aerial victory is that of a destruction. Many countries, such as Germany, but also France, granted victory when the enemy pilot was defeated and had to go down to land, because of damaged aircraft or wounded pilot. The complete destruction of the aircraft was not required to grant a victory.2 - the authors review the losses of the Russian aircraft based on the claim type submitted by German ace. But wrong aircraft identification was common place, so the research should be more wide.3 - the authors describe the Russian archives as perfect and very comprehensive. It is difficult for me to challenge that assessment with facts and data. I will just point out that Russian archives were open for a limited time only. When I see how we still discover new facts in archives or recently revealed documents for other airforces, such as temporary assignments, losses that were not documented, or on a wrong date, I am surprised that one can conclude that all Russian losses are known, and therefore claims that do match with Russian archives are not substantiated.