[Kapper]

drgondog

Your fathers 7 Victories in his initial 35 Combat sorties is a good achievement. For comparison, Hartmanns first 7 Victories came in 100 Combat Sorties in the target rich environment of the Eastern Front of 1942/43 and Barkhorn claimed his first victory on his 120th Combat sortie in early July 1941 having flown during the Battle of Britain without success. This is typical of the slow progress at the start of a fighter pilots career. The fighter pilots got better as they flew more missions. Imagine what your father could have achieved had he flown 1000 combat sorties in a prolonged campaign and lived long enough to achieve this milestone.

On another point, one of the leading German pilots of 1940, Werner Molders (a 14 victory Spanish Civil War Veteran) claimed 9 victories during the Phoney War (Sep 29 - Apr 40) he then claimed 16 Victories during the Battle of France (May - Jun 1940), then during the Battle of Britain (Jul - Oct 1940) claimed 29 Victories, for a total of 54 Victories to the end of October 1940. The Allied air experts can check this out but you will find that during each these phases of the war, these victory claims are comparable to the leading allied pilots victory claims. However what I have not found is an RAF pilot with previous combat experience who flew numerous combat sorties in the phoney war, the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain altogether. Very few had previous combat experience prior to WWII, and most of the Phoney War/Battle of France Veterans were rested (instructors) during the Battle of Britain.

For the Germans they had many veterans of the Spanish Civil War with 100+ combat sorties, most flew in all the campaigns of 1940, then these veterans were let loose onto a mostly raw underprepared Soviet Union?

Therefore, I believe in the early years of the War the Germans had the advantage as they had more combat experience that was imparted onto their less experienced pilots in the frontline units that led to greater success. Many of the high scoring experten started their careers during this period. In the latter parts of the war this situation changed when the Allies gained the necessary experience and improved the training programs, while the Germans shortened their training due to frontline demands.

During the period from late 1942 in North Africa to August 1944 at Normandy many experienced Jagdgeschwaders were mauled by the Allies loosing many of the veterans that would've imparted their knowledge to the new pilots. Suddenly inexperienced Staffelkapitans of few victories were teaching the new pilots. This I believe was the primary reason for the difference between the Eastern and Western Fronts, though the few units that remained on the Eastern Front had a reasonably high attrition, this attrition was mostly amongst the new pilots therefore being able to retain a reasonable proportion of veterans to impart combat knowledge to the newcomers.

This is probably a poor comparison but for an example I will use a sporting team, a team with several veteran players with high pressure game experience tend to perform better than new untested teams. The more experienced members tend to show the newer member how to win. Coaches (like combat flight instuctors) can pave the way but senior members in the team give the finishing touches with their experience on the playing field.

In summary, I believe the combat experience makeup of units is a key factor that tends to be overlooked when looking at the successes of various pilots.

Regards,

Craig...