The above is a typical reply (not intending to start an argument here)in that people 'know' the Germans had a strict verification system. Everyone 'knows' it but no one knows what it was or how it worked!
The situation in the East was that the kill claims were so high that an automatic 33% (rising to 50% in 1944) reduction was applied when collating the figures for intelligence use.
The Germans did that to their own figures.
In Normandy we can check German claims against fairly accurate Allied losses and guess what?
No more multiple kills (i.e.kills not claims) by single lone Tigers!
Hate to keep repeating this narrow point but Wittmann is by far the single most quoted example of a German tank ace in Normandy and it can be proved that the numbers cited in his award claim for Villers Bocage is at least out by a factor of x2, maybe even more.
The second most famous claim is by Will Fey in August when he claimed 15 Shermans in a single engagement. The corresponding War Diary of the engaged Unit shows they were not in action that day!
Barkman on 27/7/44 has a high profile as well but a recent reply to me from Steve Zaloga states that the 3rd AD losses that whole day were just 3 Shermans.
The Germans overclaimed like everyone else but it seems no one takes this into account when recycling unverified Unit claims as actual confirmed kills.
michael kenny got a reaction from Kineas in The Bouncing .50 cal - can it kill a tank?
