The biggest Liar?
 

I did some reading on uboat.net recently, and found a number of captains grossly over-estimates the number and/or tonnage of the ships sunk.

Here is one;
http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/3388.html

"On 10 Dec, 1944, U-1202 reported in a radio telegram the sinking of four ships totalling 26000 tons from a convoy.
In fact, only the unescorted Dan Beard (Master William Robert Wilson) was hit at 13.55 hours by one torpedo in rough seas off Strumble Head, North Wales."

It's kinda hard to mistaken a single unescorted merchant ship for a convoy...

Uboat.net only list confirmed sinkings. Which make me curious:

Who claimed the most tonnage sunk? (Is it Kreshmer?)
Who claimed the most number of ships sunk?

AND

Who's the biggest liar? (claim a lot more than actual sinking).

You've been doing the reading. You tell us!:DL

Seriously, though, Blair in his American submarine book talks about the problems involved. A lot of the claims were exagerrated simply because the ID books were wrong, or a lot of ships looked like a lot of other ships, or the claimed ship didn't actually sink.

In most cases it wasn't lying so much as not knowing for sure what they were claiming. Still, I'd be curious to see what you find out.

From what I've read here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/annemar...ell/can4a.html Joachim Schepke had a tendency to overestimate his tonnage. According to Lawrence Paterson, Albrecht Brandi also did this.

You could also blame some of these discrepancies on Reichsfurher Goebbels. The German Propaganda Ministry had no compunction with pushing dubious claims. That's why the Ark Royal was sunk several times in her career before she really was.

Exactly!

Fighter pilots over claimed as well. Not suprising considering how crazy mass dog fights must have been. Before gun cameras I don't know how any of them kept track of what was going on.

http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/3388.html

"On 10 Dec, 1944, U-1202 reported in a radio telegram the sinking of four ships totalling 26000 tons from a convoy.
In fact, only the unescorted Dan Beard (Master William Robert Wilson) was hit at 13.55 hours by one torpedo in rough seas off Strumble Head, North Wales."

It's kinda hard to mistaken a single unescorted merchant ship for a convoy...

:rotfl:

I did say most, not all...

LOL :DL



http://www.toontracker.com/magoo/magoo-1.gif

The biggest liars are probably players like ourselves. Just how many times has the Hood been sunk already?!

Schepkes tendency to overestimate was well known as "Schepke-Tonnage" between the Cmdrs during WWII.

A little off topic but the Luftwaffe had a very strict claims procedure. A kill had to be witnessed by 1 other person before it was recognized & confirmed by the claimant's Gruppenkommandeur. Unlike the RAF, RCAF, USAAF, etc. the Luftwaffe's policy was "one pilot, one kill"; if 2 pilots claimed the same kill they had to decide between themselves who would get credit. If they were unable to decide the Staffel was awarded the victory.

That's correct, but by the same token if joint claims were made and no overwhelming evidence was found to decide which claimant was actually responsible....kills were often halved ie divided equally.

Could have been pure despair.
In Oct 1944 the U-Boats were really hard pressed by the allied. Maybe he needed some sort of success to not meet with some interrogators after coming back and be reagrded a coward (which was quite unhealthy in Germany by that time).:06:

That makes sense, but still who knows in the chaos of combat. I've read many reports that claim 'blue' squadron shot down 12 'red' planes in engagement 'x'. Then you see 'red' squadron report 3 planes lost after the same engagement.

I always liked the story I read once about a RAF Spitfire pilot's comment to his CO after a fierce dogfight, "Well sir, I think I managed to scare a few of them as much as they scared me."

Personally, I've never had a shot fired at me in anger, so I'm willing to give those that have quite a pass. U-boat kaleun or fighter pilot.:salute:

[quote=McHibbinsSchepkes tendency to overestimate was well known as "Schepke-Tonnage" between the Cmdrs during WWII.[/quote]

So, it's safe to say the regarded his reports rather Schepketical? :O: (could not resist...)

Benny