Quote:
Originally Posted by VtwinVince
I disagree with your blanket statement. I have correspondence with numerous pilots who trained with my uncle during the period 1940-41 with Erg. JG3 and Erg. Jagdgruppe 51, such as Rudi Sinner, Walter Schuck and Helmut Rueffler, amongst others. They maintained that their later successes were primarily due to the high quality training they received. I suppose things could have deteriorated later in the conflict, but to dismiss categorically the experienced pilots as a group of self-interested parties only interested in padding their scores is a gross generalisation.
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You are missing the point. The mentioned airmen were trained before Galland became responsible. Otherwise, individual successes meant nothing in aerial warfare. While Allies worked hard to make a force, to develop strategy and tactics, to manage air war, Luftwaffe got stuck, and was unable to gain local supremacy by managing large formations and to organise proper training system. If you go through individual air combats, you can find, that Luftwaffe could not go upper hand even with local numerical advantage, because of lack of proper training and tactics. Even looking at Bodenplatte, you can see that a fair number of losses was caused by lack of escort, ie. sections left above, to cover strafing aircraft.