[JFM]

This is not new information but I'll toss in here the reminder that these men flew many more sorties than those in which they shot down an airplane. MvR never scored with 152/17 after 18 March, not necessarily that he never flew it again in combat, or planned to fly it again; that's unknown.

Same with 425/17. Why couldn't he have flown it between 24 March and 7 April and just not shot anything down with it until 20 April (after enduring almost two weeks of frequently inclement weather that often precluded flying any machine)? After all, he flew concurrent sorties/scored with multiple planes--as with No. 71 (127/17); Nos. 72, 73 (477/17); No. 74 (127/17); No. 75 (477/17); No. 76 (127/17). Could he have flown 425/17 as well and just not scored while flying it? My speculation is why not? For example, say he flew four sorties in one day, using 477/17, 425/17, 127/17, 477/17 respectively, and only scored on his third sortie with 127/17. He would have still flown the others that day, even without record (i.e., combat report/victory claim) of such.

I am not saying that this happened unquestionably with 152/17 and 425/17--I just don't know--but I offer that the possibility is reasonable enough that it ought not be discounted wantonly.