VMF-121 victory claims

[twocee]

I think the best that can be said is that the true Japanese losses were somewhere between the US claims and what they themselves reported.

There appears to be no definitive means of checking the reported loss figures, e.g. by means of individual aircraft records, and so it is up to the individual to reach his own conclusions.

[Franek Grabowski]

Why do you assume Japanese loss records are incorrect?

[twocee]

They may well be correct. What I said is that there appears to be no means of verification, such as tracking the serial numbers in the case of US aircraft, and so it is better to say the "losses admitted" were such and such, rather than saying the "losses were". It is also not clear what the admitted loss figure does and does not contain. Does it include aircraft that returned to base but did not fly again on account of damage? I don't know. I think it unlikely that the true figures will ever be known.

[Franek Grabowski]

I would say that a suggestion that US aircraft and aircraft losses are easy to trace is a little bit optimistic.
I have discussed the matter of Japanese losses with a researcher, and there is really a matter of surviving documents. There is a fair bit of IJNAF daily or mission reports, and I understand those were the source of information in this particular case. I do not remember if they do contain serial numbers but they definitely do provide precise information about establishment and losses. The problem is that there is no full set of such documents for the whole war and there is a big gap for IJAAF. Of course, one would wish even better information but as far as I know coverage of IJNAF operations in SWPT 1941-43 is complete and does not leave much to desire.