[GuerraCivil]

With Soviet claims I wonder how much confusion has been created with shared/group air victory system? For example Piotr Kozachenko is credited sometimes with 4 individual air victories from the Soviet-Finnish Winter War 1939-1940 when flying in 25 IAP but his actual claims appear to have been 1 individual + 4 shared kills (of which one shared seems possible according to Finnish sources). Some conversion of shared kills into individual kills + adding some extra claims happened with Aleksander Bulayev (7 IAP) - in one book (Maslov: I-15, I-16 and I-153 Aces) he was credited with nine air victories from the Winter War but his actual claims were 3 individual + 3 shared (one of his individual claims may be possible/verified by Finnish sources).

There was also difference between the claim ratio / verified enemy loss between different Soviet units. For example 25 IAP was credited with 45 air victories in Winter War of which only 4 seem possible/verified in the light of Finnish records. Another unit 49 IAP claimed 16 of which as many as 9 seem possible/verified by Finnish sources. The confirmation of air victories may have depended a lot of unit commanders and circumstances in which the unit fought.

Probably one should study Soviet claims just at unit level. Perhaps some units were more precise/more strict than others and the claims of pilots of those units more precise/more possible in the light of enemy records. There may be also periods when certain unit has claimed more precisely than during others (different commander, different combat situation).

But how about Johnie Johnson and Gabby Gabreski? Is it actually easier to check their individual claims than those of Soviet top aces?