[kolya1]

I wouldn't be sure that aircraft heavily damaged by enemy action are included in the "weared" category...

Or if they are then this should not make a big part of these...

I cannot be sure because we lack elements to be fully affirmative but simply look at the losses in older aircraft types : very few were lost on combat missions or accidents, the enormous majority of the losses were "weared" aircrafts, which most probably means that the surviving I-16s, or early LaGG-3s were dumped because they were too old and not useful or safe to fly anymore (and not that e.g. : 500 were too damaged to be repaired while not a single one didn't return from mission..., which is quite unlikely).

BTW, don't you find that 12 400 combat losses is a number high enough ? I know the german claims were probably higher but still, if you compare it to the number of aircrafts in service this is a really heavy loss rate...


Kolya.


P.S. : Remember the issue of the number of gunners killed on the Il-2 during WWII, it was very often said there were some 7 to 10 gunners killed for each pilot (AFAIK, not a german claim), but when you try to check that claim, there is absolutely nothing to substantiate it, that's simply wrong...