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Reporting losses would require the use of 'finesse'
Bob wrote, "To Echo Juha -one way or another - losses in the military GET reported -otherwise the military machine will fly apart."
Juhu wrote, "High combat losses meant trouble for regimental commander but so meant too many losses by pilot errors, bad weather etc."
Soviet commanders used finesse when reporting losses. When there were too many combat losses, a few got reported lost due to weather and some were lost due to mechanical failure. Too many mechanical failures, and a few were reported lost due to combat losses and some due to weather. The idea was to keep everything in balance. Records and reports were constantly being finessed to not attract attention.
And Soviet commanders were very good at hiding this, because their lives depended not only on doing it, but also on keeping it secret.
The fundamental requirement for Soviet commanders to finesse everything at every stage of reporting is so obvious and prevalent in the literature that it's not even a matter of debate. It's a fact.
mars wrote, "...in WWII, the claim system of ALL AIRFORCE were not accurate, it was common for all WWII airforce that their overclaim rate reachs the level of 3:1 or 4:1, Luftwaffe was not an exception."
Agreed.
Bronc
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