Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsenal VG-33
German ground attack pilots should rather speak with some autorithy about their own mission.
So browsing a book written by "mister kit", edition atlas, about FW-190 Jabos, we can read there were using close to soviet combat techniques. Flying low at 400 km/h once the target seen, they were making a chandelle or a combat turn, then attacking by shallow dive at 25-30°.
The same as for Il-2, except that it's speed was about 330-360 km/h. No much difference for the AAA.
Don't have much time to describe numerous Il-2 missions profiles, but they have obviously nothing common with Stein's doubtfull beliefs.
I mean just one soviet Il-2 pilot , manual, mission profile, mission briefing, mission debrieffing, post-op. camera pictures are dozen times more informative than dozens and dozens of Steins.
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Russian fighter pilots quickly adopted the Luftwaffe Finger-Four combat tactics so that does not surprise me.
Stein was not alone in his beliefs, but I don't think that any German pilot thought of himself as an expert about the entire catalogue of techniques tried by the VVS at various times and places. They could only form opinions based on personal experience and eyewitness accounts from their comrades.
Their own airfields were attacked by Russian aircraft and the victims described it as it happened. They were sometimes able to watch German ground troops while under attack by the Shturmoviks. If I were to read all operational histories of German flying units, I would surely find varied opinions about the Russian air force. But there was a consensus among the pilots of both SG 1 and SG 2 that Russian fighter pilots were not very aggressive and usually did not attack the Focke-Wulf fighter-bombers when they had opportunity to do so.