The fighter pilots, with Lützow taking the lead as spokesman, criticized Göring and made him personally responsible for the decisions taken which effectively had led to the lost air war over Europe. Michalski was involved in a motor vehicle accident on 22 February 1946 and died in a hospital in Kaltenkirchen. His brother Werner was killed in action as a "Leutnant" on 10 April 1942 serving with "Jagdgeschwader" 26 "Schlageter". According to Spick, Michalski was credited with 73 aerial victories in 652 missions, of which 59 victories were achieved over the Western Front including 13 four-engine bombers and 29 Supermarine Spitfire fighters. Matthews and Foreman, authors of "Luftwaffe Aces — Biographies and Victory Claims", researched the German Federal Archives and found records for 68 aerial victory claims, plus three further unconfirmed claims. This number includes 14 on the Eastern Front and 54 on the Western Front, including 11 four-engined bombers. Victory claims were logged to a map-reference (PQ = "Planquadrat"), for example "PQ 03 Ost 9848". The Luftwaffe grid map () covered all of Europe, western Russia and North Africa and was composed of rectangles measuring 15 minutes of latitude by 30 minutes of longitude, an area of about . These sectors were then subdivided into 36 smaller units to give a location area 3 × 4 km in size.