Quote:
Originally Posted by Kurfürst
The Huns, knowing the Spits quality in dogfight, carefully avoided taking them on …
Clostermann's Big Show, page 214. BTW he didn't mean the 262 but rather uprated piston engined fighters of the LW with MW-50 and other boosts (ie. G-14s, A-8s, A-9s, D-9s). These had some significant speed advantage (up to 40-70 km/h) over the Mark IX that was just introduced in service in numbers.
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I'm quite familiar with Clostermann's book and the reliability of some of his observations. If the Germans really avoided taking on the Spitfire IX at a time when much of their fighter effort in the west was in defence of their own supply lines against fighter-bombers, doesn't that rather reinforce my point that it remained a viable combat aircraft in 1945?