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Re: Luftwaffe Kills in Tunisia Compared to Recorded USAAF P-38 losses
As the guy who "started" this thread, albeit with no inkling of the discussion that would take place, I find it interesting to see how various folks interpret the information. My interest is in how the Luftwaffe performed against a new threat flying a somewhat unique aircraft (though I am going to look at USAAF P-40s and Spitfires in the same manner). I found the trends, e.g. higher losses in Dec 42 and Jan 43 dropping by more than half for the remainder of the campaign - with no comparable drop in US fighter group operational tempo - to be very interesting. Yet the kills versus claims were most accurate when the US losses were highest. I dont leap to the conclusion that pilots are not telling the truth. Pilots are part of organizations governed by regulations and overseen by a chain of command. Don Caldwell and Juha are closer than most in describing these dyanmics. In my mind, probably because I have heretofore been interested only in ground combat, I am not looking at how a nationality does or how a particular airframe performs. Tunisia, for my purposes, offers a quantifiable theater with manageable numbers of airplanes to track down using primary sources (which are pretty good for the USAAF if you know where to find them). So, for anyone who took offense at a percieved suggestion that Luftwaffe fighters aces werent entirely honest, please accept an apology for any unintended slight. I must admit that the only reason I plan to concentrate on the USAAF rather than the Luftwaffe or RAF for that campaign is that I am predominately an English speaker (though my "aviation" German is fairly good having been born in Heidelberg and lived for some time in Schweinfurt) and the US National Archives is only 30 miles from my home. I will post my follow-on research if anyone would like to take a look at it because I do welcome the comments and thoughts that all have provided. That said, anyone who would like to help me with the Luftwaffe side of the house, especially in terms of air to air losses for zerstorers,transports, bombers, and such, I would welcome the help. I am pretty set for information on German single seat fighters once Die Jagdfliegerverbande der Deutschen Luftwafe Teil 11/II comes out. That is an excellent reference source and overall series IMHO.
Cheers,
Mark R.
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