Quote:
Originally Posted by GuerraCivil
I think that the accuracy of claims is not irrelevant when trying to judge the effectiveness of air units, specially fighter units.
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IMHO it didn't much matter if the kills were made by Smith or Jones/Hans or Jürgen, what mattered was the real results achieved by the units.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GuerraCivil
When looking the stats of certain units, the "top scorers" make a substantial contribution - thus it has some importance. Inflated kill/loss -stats give wrong picture of airwar and can lead to wrong conclusions. The more inflated the air victory stats is the more false picture it gives about the efficiency of certain air units, certain tactics and certain strategy.
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That is self-evident but what matters is the claim accuracy of the unit(s) not so much of the individual(s). And in the end it is the question how much the top brass believed the claims, if they didn't believe badly inflated claims those claims didn't have much effect on tactics etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GuerraCivil
The RAF failed to achieve enough positive results in 1941-1942 with Circus operations and the actual kill/loss -stats were highly unfavourable for RAF - big numerical superiority did not bring the hoped air dominance over Western Europe. Effectively just two Luftwaffe regiments (JG 26 and JG 2) tied down much bigger enemy forces and managed to inflict them bigger losses than suffered themselves.
How much did the inflated RAF kill/loss -stats with these operations effect in the continuing somewhat dubious strategy and committing too many Spitfires in rather futile operations is very interesting question. Many Spitfires would have found better service outside of Britain much earlier like sending them to defend Malta and stregthening DAF in North Africa by late 1941/early 1942.
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A bit more complicated than that, the main question was the grand strategy. Germany's central position allowed it to move units more rapidly than GB. So the main question for British was, could Germany knock out the SU out of the war or even simply stabilize the Eastern Front so that it could move most of the LW to the West maybe with some of the best Heer divs. In that case GB might well to loose the war if most of its Spits were in MTO. In war one should not lightly risk one's power base for gains in secondary sectors.
Juha