[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by david Cotton

Regarding the German Pilots getting high scores due to the poor aircraft they met early one. I can understand this and would agree that some pilots would of gained high scores at this time. However, not all the high scoreres were around at this time. For example Hartmann and Lipfert did not get to the front until 1943.

Up until the end of the war Soviet aircraft were inferior to the German ones. This is a long living myth of Soviet propaganda that their aircraft were any good.

I would also agree that the best German fighter pilots were not better that the best Allied pilots. I agree with the sentiment that German pilots had more oportunity for combat.

At the beggining of the war the German pilots would of been more experienced in combat than the allied pilots. But I would of thougt that the pilots leaving the training schools were about the same. During the BoB the new British Fighter pilots (10 hours on fighters) would of been cannon fodder, but by being there they drew the Germans off the better pilots.

Quality of pilots varied depending on training system. Germans lost, among other reasons, due to their poor training system. Also, I would like to see a log book of a RAF pilot with 10 or so hours on fighters before being send to a fighting unit. I indeed saw some, but pilots were then send to Scotland, Ireland or Wales to gain some 50 hours of flying time.

Latter in the war, German pilots could not be trained well for lack of fuel and mustangs roaming over Germany. The allies could train up their pilots in safty and put them into combat with a lot more flying experience. Therefore, not only were there more allied pilots, but avarage allied pilot was better trained than the German Pilot he was likly to meet.

Not exactly. Up until Normandy pilots could have been trained in safety but it was at the time it turned out the training was not proper. Germans were unable to fly and fight in large formations and had a lot of problems with blind flying. It is well worth to read interrogation reports of pilots downed at the time.

However, I would not say pilots like Marselle were over rated because they fought with loaded dice, so to speak. I think it is all part of being a good fighter pilot, getting into a position where you are pretty certain that you will make the kill and survive.

He could choose terms of combat and this was a substantial advantage. As long as he flew 'by the book', he was safe.

If i was to draw a comparison, I would say that Marselle and George Beurling seem to have the same ability when it comes to shooting. They seem to of got the art of defection shooting right. Both these pilots also seem to of got into dog fights as oposed to ambushing their victims from above. Their ability to defection shoot ment that the dogfight normally did not last long

I cannot tell about Beurling but I understand in case of Marseille it was a matter of surprisingly getting really close, so with limited deflection shooting.