[Andrey Dikov]

to Graham:

>But the Finns were the only nation, apart from one NZ pilot, to actually prefer the Brewster.
>It is also arguable that the Finns faced weaker opposition, with generally better trained pilots.

This question has two main sides.

Firstly, the success of Finnish Brewsters is extremely overestimated. It's true myth, although I really respect Finnish pilots and even sympathize, despite they opposed Russian pilots. Starting from 1942 (at least) FAF had a very high rate of overclaims - very similar to Soviet rate. And 42-43 was the most successful period of Finnish Brewsters. In fact I like to research combats between Finnish and Russian pilots, because these combats were bloodless generally.

To illustrate it by some figures, I would remind August, 1942 which is regarded as triumphal for LeLv 24 - they claimed more than 50 kills (I have no exact figure by hand, correct me if I'm wrong) for one loss in combats with VVS KBF navy pilots. For ex.:

Combat of Aug 14 (Finnish/Soviet): claims 6/1, losses - 0/1.
Combat of Aug 16: claims - 11/3, losses - 0/1.
Combat of Aug 18: claims 16/3, losses - 1/1.

Second, yes, it seems Finns really prefer Brewster, but they had not much options.


to Juha:

>do you know if Rybin has any plans to try to find a British publisher to his book?

I don't know, I never asked, he never said.

>the history of Hurricanes of 3 giap KBF, as an article to some British aviation magazines?

Good idea, but I have no contacts with any western magazine.



to Franek:

>Similar conclusions were drawn after a combat between Lightnings and Yak-9s over Yugoslavia in 1944, the outcome being unfavourable for Yaks in ratio 3:1 I think. Also Mustangs fared extremelly well against Yak-9s in March 1945, downing several of them with no losses.

Don't you think that these clashes can't illustrate anything as far Americans really and suddenly attacked what they suspected to be an enemy, and Soviets defended of their allies?


>It may turn out that some of the sluggish Hurricanes were Yaks actually.

Nice shot, Franek! In 1942 the Finns claimed Spitfires and they actually were... Yak-1s. And again - 9 'spitfires' were claimed for no actual loss on Soviet side.