Quote:
Originally Posted by GuerraCivil
Has there been studies of at what point LW dayfighter losses started to be clearly bigger than the number of downed Allied planes in the West? I think that the crucial point was achieved latest by early 1944 when Luftwaffe´s dayfighter losses were bigger than the combined losses by Allied daybombers and their escort fighters.
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I think the math is a little more complicated than that. you also need to look at the ability of each air force to replace losses, both airframes and air crew, and the ability to operate their forces (fuel for example). By 1942 Churchill was quite happy to trade plane for plane with the Luftwaffe in daylight fighter sweeps over the continent, because he believed the UK could replace losses faster than the Luftwaffe.
The German industry showed amazing resilience late in the war in terms of numbers of airframes built. There is much information on the lack of fuel for the Luftwaffe late in the war, but I would like to hear any information on Germany's ability to replace air crews in the times being discussed. From the other side, the BCATP was turning out too many pilots by mid 1944, and schools in Canada were being shut down in the last half of 1944.