La-7 vs ??? (attn Franek)

[Christer Bergström]

First of all, I have no aeronautical engineering background whatsoever, I am not a pilot, and I have understood that Franek and all of you have very high knowledge in your respective special fields. My approach is that of someone interested more in the men and the history than in the machines. I found the discussion about the pilot statements interesting.

” barkhorn stated yak-9u as best fighter for low altitudes. . . I am very curious how he could distinguish Yak-9U variant in the air.”

- I think it may be quite simple: He or some other German guy flew a captured Yak-9U to test it against German fighters. Otherwise, I agree with Franek. As Grislawski said: “Yak, LaGG, MiG - whatever, sometimes we couldn’t tell.”

“rall stated his 109g(6?) wasn't able to catch la-5 and yak-9. . . .I find it surprising, it was underlined by a Polish Yak1/9 pilot Edward Chromy, that they were slower but more manouverable than their German enemies.”

- Here we apparently have two conflicting statements. The question is which one you find surprising - Rall’s or Chromy’s? Who had the largest amount of experience? From which tactical positions did Chromy encounter his “German enemies”? When did he usually encounter them? If he encountered German “free hunters” over Soviet territory immediately after he had taken off himself, he would have a Yak fighter with filled fuel tanks - adding quite some weight to the little fighter - against German fighters with maybe only half filled tanks (thus with less relative weight), and maybe also an altitude superiority.

“grislaski is quoted, that his 109 can't outturn yak-1 . . . I cannot exclude it but otherwise I find it quite stupid to turn with Yak when it is possible to make a safe zoom attack.”

- I got the impression that:
a) Grislawski didn’t always enjoy the privilege of being able to choose the tactical position in the air combats;
b) Grislawski was such a damned good pilot that he knew how to take his Bf 109 to the end, even out-turning enemy fighters which when equally compared were more maneuverable. Although one German pilot described entering a turning combat with P-40s as “tantamount to suicide” (or something similar), Marseille frequently challenged P-40s in turning fights. I think he knew what he was doing. Another extremely skilful “turn fighter” on the Bf 109 was Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, who learned how to out-turn even I-16s. See my forthcoming biography on Ostermann. . .

“general schwabedissen stated, yak-3 and la-7 were superior to 109g and 190a . . . am not sure what qualifications General Schwabediessen had.”

- I think that what Jens refers to here is the book “The Russian Air Force in the Eyes of German Commanders” (USAF Historical Division, Air University 1960), where Schwabedissen simply lines up statements made by various German commanders (including air unit commanders). Schwabedissen makes only few own statements.

It always is interesting to listen to the veterans when they speak of what the have experienced themselves. Realities at the frontlines were much different than test results in calm conditions.

We should remember to take both pilot accounts and all kinds of aircraft performance statistics with a grain of salt. I think there were pilots who were so in love with the plane they flew, that they found it better than anything else - even if that was not true. I think there were pilots who due to one traumatic experience while flying one aircraft, learned to loathe that aircraft type, and saw nothing good in it. But when there is a whole row of pilots who say the same thing about a particular aircraft in combat conditions, I think that could be of greater value than some test results in calm conditions.

A single combat - like the one between Yaks and Lightnings - definitely is of very little value when it comes to making an assessment of how these aircraft compared to each other. I can give you examples of I-16s or PZL P.11s beating up Bf 109 Es or Fs, but surely no one would be able to come up with an overall test result that would indicate that the I-16 or the PZL P.11 could be regarded as generally superior to the Bf 109 E or F.

Finally - thanks, Ruy, for reminding us all of the golden rules!

BTW - now it is clear. “Black Cross/Red Star”, Vol. 3 WILL be published by Eagle Editions in the autumn of 2005. (There will be some more surprises from my pen in the nearest future. There was one small hint above.)

All best from a quite busy writer

Christer Bergström

http://www.graf-grislawski.elknet.pl/index.htm

http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/bc-rs/

http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/...-ace/index.htm