[HGabor]

Paul,

I do not even attempt to figure the Ju 52 losses due to several factors:

1. tons of papers lost
2. Overclaims by soviet air units or in fact shared, therefore doubled claims
3. Doubled claims between air and AAA units.

You are right, fighter escort performance was not the best, in fact there are investigation papers on fighters leaving their big friends over the front line, missing them by miscalculated time and place, leaving them in dangerous situations. Fighters were much more successful in free-hunt.

I also do not attempt to guess the cause of the IL-2 losses. It's messy again. Do not forget IL-2s were flying tanks with tons of steel. Only chance was to down them to hit the coolant in their belly, so fighters usually attacked from below. Having said that surviving IL-2 crews usually did not even see the enemy fighters, only felt the explosion below, thinking it was AAA. So on the Axis side there are many fighter claims, wheras on the soviet side reports usually mention AAA, - not fighters. In combined cases where AAA damaged planes were finished off by enemy fighters it is up to you how you calculate it. So I would be shocked to see two independent statistics showing the same numbers.... Finally: yes, old La-5F was still very popular in both 5 and 17 VA in 1945. (No technology was wasted, they used them as long as they could for max. effort.)

Eg.: In the 2 divisions (6 La-5 regiments plus 18 OUTAP) of 17 VA:

January 1, - February 1, - March 1, 1945:

La-5F : 97 - 91 - 58
La-5FN: 162 - 141 - 125

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Gabor