Response to Glider and Juha.

[Juha]

Hello VG
As much I’d like to have exact info, I don’t have, maybe nobody have because the high number of those which simply went missing, but losses in operations was 10759 – 109 destroyed by enemy on the ground + probably most of 807 lost by Naval units.

IMHO it is rather useless to compare Il-2 losses to US heavy bomber losses, their attack profiles were so different and heavy bombers spent so much more time in hostile airspace per sortie. More fruitful comparison would be Il-2losses vs fighter-bomber losses

Quote:” But what is 100% sure from Efremov, Romanov, Zinoviev (yes, yes the famous anti-soviet dissident) and other Il-2 crews testimony, it is that was far better to write off planes for "combat reasons" rather for "flying accident". USSR was the kind of contry where pilots were easily prosecuted and sometimes executed for "unjustified plane crashes". It also should be remembered...when just looking at crude statistics. “

I don’t have info on Shturmovik units but in fighter units also too high combat losses might mean hard times to the CO. One might try to alleviate the impact of high losses by inflating victories but if caught doing that, one would have been in deep trouble indeed. Life wasn’t easy under Stalinist system.

Juha