Australian Spitfires

[JeffK]

Originally Posted by JoeB

Since your post, I see others posting perhaps more familiar with the actual Japanese losses than I (judging by other threads on other fora), but the main point is you seem to be quoting Spit claims, not the actual Japanese losses. I didn't say 2 but rather 3 A6M's; what Hata/Izawa "Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in WWII" p.129 gives as 202 Kokutai losses for March through September 1943. That was AFAIK the only A6M unit involved. The JAAF lost a Ki-43 (see earlier post). There was as I mentioned at one time an Aussie website with the breakdown day by day, claims and real losses for each side, perhaps from one of the other books mentioned in the thread. ISTR it had fewer than 3 A6M's actually downed by Spits over Darwin per J records.

Joe

JoeB,

Thanks for the info that there are others here that are more familiar than us at Japanese losses. Sadly they cant be bothered in posting their knowledge.

Unless they post their irrefutable evidence, these figures will probably never be known.

A PS to the comparison against G'canal. The Japs there had a limited choice of target and due to the range, a limited attack line. Over Darwin the Allied airbases were strung out over 60+ miles and the attackers a wider choice of directions to approach from. Even the fact that the raids were not as heavy and were intermittantly flown stretched out the defenders.

There were also tactical errors made, the Spitfire pilots included a number of pilots recently out of training and the Spit V was not happy in the hot & dusty (or hot & wet) conditions.