Hi Mirek,
I'm not sure that I understood everything but I will try to provide some answers:
1. "I do not understand", why the command of the Yugoslav VVKJ after two years of air war in Europe (Poland, Norway, France, Battle of Britain) is not practically had reached any conclusions from the experience of modern warfare? The authors of this aspect of the preparations for the war fighter of VVKJ almost missed, and it is a big shame?
I would have to disagree with this. In my opinion we described in many details the preparations for the war and acting of the higher commands. Almost the whole first chapter deals with this and the impact of introduction of Bf 109. We have tried to describe in general terms, but also through numerous examples how the things did not work properly in the VVKJ high command (the report of Dragutin Rubcic on page 21 is an example of that). Maybe we could have added that none of the VVKJ Generals rose through ranks as airmen. All came from infantry, cavalry, artillery as high officers... Only one of them was a pilot himself - Borivoje Mirković, but even he was expelled from the aviation in 1916 and he rejoined the air force in 1928 by switching from artillery. Such men did not have much understanding of the aviation and its needs. Still, our book is not the general study of VVKJ but rather of a type in its inventory.
Aviators VVKJ in terms of tactical skills were very weak? Poorly familiar silhouette of enemy aircraft. Aviators VVKJ poorly were also led to the defense of Belgrade against the attacks of the Luftwaffe. Courage is one thing, and strategic skills and tactical play is quite different. Having good equipment is foolish to die senselessly!
I can only agree with you, and this is described in great detail.
2. How Me 109s of VVKJ done combat sorties in April 1941?
All combat sorties of the 6. Fighter regiment are listed in Appendix 4. We have estimated the number of Bf 109 sorties of the 2. Fighter Regiment in the text, but as most of these were fruitless scrambles and patrols, we decided not to include a separate appendix with their list. All sorties of Bf 109 from the 3. Pilot School in Mostar are included in the text.
3. How Me 109s of Luftwaffe done combat sorties over Yugoslavia in April 1941?
I'm not sure that I understand the question. Could you please be more specific?
4. How many Yugoslav pilots reported total victories or claims in April 1941? Against the background of the overall success of the pilots of the Yugoslav better, when you see successful pilots fighting on the Me 109s?
The Appendix 3 includes all the VVKJ fighter claims from the April War (including those with IK-3s, Furies and Hurricanes). We have explained in the Introduction what problems we faced in preparing such a list and why there never will be a official list of claims. In the Appendix you can also find if there was any loss in co-relation with the claim.
5. To what extent the accuracy of the provisional list of victories Yugoslav fighter (p.172-173) is close to the "final list wins/victories"?
It is close as far as it could be with existing evidence.
For example, when Dragan Savic and I prepared the 'Croatian Aces' for Osprey 15 years ago, we had no idea that Vilim Acinger made any claims during the April War, nor did we find any mention of it anywhere.
Then, we found a war diary of a pilot who was there and who noted that Acinger claimed a Ju 87 (even if there were no losses on German side) in the afternoon of 7.4. with some other details.
Back then, when reading the transcripts of the interview with Tomislav Kauzlaric, we wrongfully concluded that he attacked a 'He 111' during the first morning raid on Belgrade on 6.4. Then, we found a letter written by Kauzlaric to his friend where he described in detail his two sorties (and not one as we initially understood) during the war. More important, his story fitted perfectly with the report of a III./KG 51 crew which was shot down in the afternoon of 7.4. by a Bf 109 and before that we could not link their demise with any existing claim.
So, we cannot exclude the possibility that some new sources will emerge and negate some of our conclusions. To be honest, I'm eagerly awaiting anything of this sort because that's the joy of the aviation history passion
Cheers,
Boris