|
Re: VMF-121 victory claims
I would say that a suggestion that US aircraft and aircraft losses are easy to trace is a little bit optimistic.
I have discussed the matter of Japanese losses with a researcher, and there is really a matter of surviving documents. There is a fair bit of IJNAF daily or mission reports, and I understand those were the source of information in this particular case. I do not remember if they do contain serial numbers but they definitely do provide precise information about establishment and losses. The problem is that there is no full set of such documents for the whole war and there is a big gap for IJAAF. Of course, one would wish even better information but as far as I know coverage of IJNAF operations in SWPT 1941-43 is complete and does not leave much to desire.
|