[Franek Grabowski]

Hello

Originally Posted by david Cotton

Regarding Quality of YAK3. I am surprised that the YAK3 only performed as per Spitfire V trop . I have read, in a book by Bill Gunston, that the Luftwaffe issued a general directive to avoid combat below 5000M with the YAK3. I think that most Russian front combat was at low level, as it was a primarily a ground attack air force.

Soviets had no aircraft able to efficiently fly higher than 5-6000m, hence German successes and low level combats. The mentioned directive remains a kind of a myth - nobody seen it but a lot of people mention it. It seems that it was ordinary tactical instruction suggesting to avoid dog-fight but not combat, however.

I have the YAK3 with a top speed of 404 MPH and later 447MPH, which is not bad. I do not have any stats on speeds at heights. It would be interesting to see how the YAK 3 performance compared with its opponents at low levels.

Speed curves for low level (first stage of supercharger) are quite similar for Spitfire V, Spitfire IX, Me 109G or Yak-3. Speed is not the only parameter though. Soviet aircraft lacked range, automatics, good radio, sometimes armament. Some researchers, willingly or not, do unfair comparisons of Soviet aircraft with limited load with western aircraft with full load - be awared. It is worth to note here that Soviet report on combat with P-38s in the late 1944 mentions Yak-9s were less manouverable than P-38s in dog fight but superior in vertical manouvers.

Regarding Pilot Training. Yes I remember reading that often Bomber Pilots were used to guide German Fighters to the target. However, I always thought this was very late in the war. I assume that instrument training was initially given and then was stopped at some point. When was this ?

Well, yes, later in the war but the problem appeared earlier than the sollution.

The reason I think it was initially given, is because I have read German fighter pilot report where the pilot talks of using instruments in bad weather. One of these was a report by Marselle.

I have not seen any such report.

Regarding the one sided combat before the arrival of America. Agreed. However, the JG2 and JG26 seemed to be able to cope with the British. I have read that post was research has indicated a kill ratio of 3:1 in favour of the Germans. This was once the British went onto the offensive. On the Dieppe raid the Germans still managed to inflict a 2:1 kill ratio in their favour. I still think that only once the USA got up and running the Germans started to loose the numbers game with regard to replacement pilots.

I think British offensive is a subject to be researched, together with involved ratios. Also the reason of German loss is a little more complicated than the US presence only.

Regarding Deflection Shooting. Marselle’s early combat career was not that good. However, he seemed to understand where he was deficient and worked on those area. It would seem that defection shooting in Marselles case was self taught.

I do not know.

Regarding P51. I am not sure If I agree here. The better performance allows an expert pilot to have more options. Adversely, a lower performance must reduce the number of tactics he can use. For me the P51 was the plane that destroyed the Luftwaffe in the west.

Yes, but it was primarily due to its superior range allowing to patrol over enemy airfields.

Regarding Hofer. I find it interesting that the German Airforce did not shoot down any of the renown Eigth Airforce aces. Maybe it was because the German Pilots were trying to get to the bombers and were more interested in avoiding the escort.

Or because many of them build their victory scores when the Luftwaffe was no threat anymore.

I have also read that the Luftwaffe tactic of waiting for the fighters to turn back allowed Allied Fighter Pilots to gain experience. If they had hit the bombers early and taken on the fighter escort the fledgling pilots may never had the chance to get good.

On the other hand Allies would inflict losses on the Germans - that was the reason they waited.

Best wishes