Airacobras in Tunisia

[JoeB]

Originally Posted by Christer Bergström

I'm not sure the Korean air war can provide us with many valuable conclusions regarding the efficiency of the Soviet air force in the defence of the motherland in 1941 - 1945. I think that those German airmen who faced both the VVS and the USAAF/RAF are the best to judge. My posting was not aimed at proving that either of the Allied air forces was better than the other; rather, I wrote that in early 1943 the differences were not that large as sometimes is assumed - "the Luftwaffe Eastern Front veterans repeated in Tunisia what they previously had accomplished on the Eastern Front against the same kind of fighters."

I must say it's seems to me a very selective assessment of what are accurate and inaccurate bases of comparison. Your argument seems to be that a very direct head to head, planes lost in reality each side, tells us little about AF effectivenes because of some abstract motivational factor that was supposedly different, but the numerous variables between east and west in WWII as far as exchange ratio's, timelines (of when operations started and when combat experience was gained) or even subjective quotations of particular pilots, provide a better comparison. With all respect to your knowledge of WWII air combat, I really doubt it.

Anyway I also doubt anyone has ever claimed, except at a pretty low level of familiarity with the topic, that USAAF performance v. the LW at the very start of their confrontations, as in late '42-mid '43 in MTO, was far more successful than VVS performance 2 years into their war. However not long ago you yourself kindly posted exchange numbers indicating on their face (that is, assuming the majority supposed "unknown" VVS combat losses were mainly in air combat, and making no assumptions about supposed LW loss understatement without specific fact) that seem to show the LW fighters achieved a few:1 ratio against VVS fighters even in 1944, when exchange ratio's had turned against them v. the USAAF. This is broadly in line with the Korean experience of several:1 against the VVS in more or less equal a/c and numbers and tactical situation (partial sanctuary, short range to bases) certainly not against the VVS. I'm not sure given the timelines of WWII that the early Med experience illuminates this comparison better, it's seems in fact much more obscure and indirect.

Joe