British Overclaims?

[Simon D]

I have just discovered some information that may be of use to anyone trying to assess the validity of British claims.

I have know for many years of an interesting combat recorded by Adolf Ritter von Tutschek (I have the Over the Front translation from 1988). On 20 May 1917 Tutschek and Vfw Arthur Schorisch were gliding in to land at Epinoy. A SPAD VII flown by 2/Lt Hyde Tregallas Garrett of 23 Squadron came in behind them and was at first mistaken for a visiting DII. Garrett attacked Schorisch (who was behind Tutschek) and was soon "going down in deep spirals with the Englishman right behind him . . ." until Tutschek attacked and forced Garrett to break off. By this time ". . . Schorisch was down too low to be able to help me and we remained alone." A long running fight ensued at the end of which Tutschek shot down Garrett, who was killed.

Nothing in "The Jasta Pilots" or "Casualties of the German Air Service" led me to question this account, but when I bought "Das Kriegstagebuch der Jagdstaffel 12" recently I was surprised to find that Schorisch was heavily wounded in aerial combat with a SPAD on 20 May 1917 and that this date is also recorded in the appendices as the day that he left Jasta 12. In other words if Garrett had managed to evade Tutschek and get home, Schorisch would have been an unsubstantiated claim (perhaps OOC?), that could not be matched up with anything in the main German records. Yet I now have no doubt that he was incapacitated for a considerable period of time and 2/Lt Garrett's claim would certainly have been valid, had he lived to make it.

This is only one example and it does not prove that other British claims were not optimistic, but it does suggest to me that I should be a little more cautious about interpreting the surviving German sources as 'proof' that some British claims were invalid.

I have mainly posted this for anyone else interested in the interpretation of claims, but I would also be keen to hear whether those with a good knowledge of the German sources regard this anomaly as surprising.

Cheers


Simon