Bf109 massacre on 30 July 1943

[keith A]

Hi,

I take the point that the P40s outnumbered the Bf109s marginally but the 325th was an inexperienced Fighter group with just 3 months front-line combat behind them. The 33rd, 57th and 324th all had more experience and much lower victory tallies in largely the same timescale. I agree the LW fighter units casualty figures and the lack of an Italian option indicateS massive overclaiming. The absence of evidence to the contrary doesn't mean the evidence to substantiate these claims has been misplaced. Without a credible reason to dismiss them the facts speak for themselves.The 325th never show any shared victories at this time. If the pilots all thought they were claiming individually then surely that's the best explanation? There's more than enough evidence of this in other units, both RAF and USAAF. Without a rigorous examination by their I/O then perhaps the claims were in good faith. Did the 325th fighters have camera guns? If they did indeed shoot down 4 Bf109G then that's a pretty decent result on their side.

It would be interesting to know that the other USAAF units thoughts of their performance in these engagement.

regards

Keith