[stephen]

I am unaware of any German records which would specifically state the means by which six of their soldiers were killed; medical records and loss records would only show the magnitude of the wound. Perhaps someone else can help us here. It is, however, unlikely that German records were ever kept, much less survived, from an action barely six weeks prior to the Armistice. And those soldiers were killed by Luke from the air, not in the alleged ground shootout. If the movie shows him killing Germans in the shootout, it is in my opinion giving him a wide berth for heroism. It's possible but unlikely.

Re: his first victory... had Luke's record continued to be of questionable integrity then there would be cause to doubt his claim, but this is not the case. Considering the remarkable veracity of his combat claims over the following 4 weeks, it is illogical to believe that Luke was lying. Again, when no other evidence is available, you must decide on what has been presented to date. What has been presented to date is the meticulously accurate combat record of a successful pilot who did not claim what he did not shoot down. Believing his initial claim is a sensible and logical extension of the available evidence.