Quote:
Originally Posted by CJE
better trained pilots than the luftwaffe could provide
Ho! ho!
Have you looked at JV 44's roster?
And even JG 7's?
|
Yes Chris, I have.
JV 44: a nucleus of exhausted veterans, some of them retrieved from a rest home, and a whole batch of newer pilots who seem to have done much of the operational flying.
JG 7: I have before me a list of 39 pilots assigned to JG 7 as of 3 January 1945 (and which I'm not ready to post yet - sorry about that): 24 of them have no victories - and you know how hung up on individual scores the Luftwaffe was.
Graham's arguments are entirely valid but when he says "most aerial successes are gained by the formation leaders and these would be equivalent on each side" I'd just add that most of the dying was done by the poorly trained and inexperienced of whom the Luftwaffe had a great many by 1945.