Breakdown losses of 8th AF fighters by type

[drgondog]

Originally Posted by CJE

Bill,

Though my own sources slightly differ from yours regarding the number of air-to-air and air-to-ground victories (I counted them all, one by one, in Frank Olynyk's book on the ETO), I agree that your tables are most reliable (I have them).
However, AFAIK, they do not include the number of sorties flown, which is essential to compare losses.

Chris

Chris - I regard Frank Olynyk as the single best source. His totals for ETO differ slightly from USAF Study 85 and subsequent update by USAFHRC.

I stand by my own totals with one very specific caveat. The 8th AF VCB missed, failed to log, however you want to describe omissions, a significant population of April, 1945 clims/awards, that Frank's research has surfaced that I don't have access to. USAF doesn't credit ground kills so there was no corresponding court of higher appeal. I also use the HRC VCB (85 plus the very few updates since the 75-78 timeframe.

The net is that I scrubbed double entries, etc and compiled the 8th VCB individual records. Interestingly (or not), Kent Miller, Frank Olynyk and I all hev very close results but there are several small differences.

If I had to bet my life on whose totals would have the most documentation for their numbers I would use Olynyk - but include his most recent updates which go beyond his ETO book.

Frank's base research for his PhD Dissertation encompassed all the available sources used by USAF plus extended to USN/USMC claims and reviews.

My own parsing of Type aircraft include 95% Encounter Report cross match with 8th VCB credits in 8th AF VCB for both air and ground, 100% USAF 85 for 9th AF air victory credits. The 'other 5%' for type when no Reference was found to the Encounter Report came from unit histories so I regard the 'type destroyed (i.e 109, 190, t/e, jet) as the most suspect by type but still in aggragate very close to Total - 'all'.

Hope that helps.

Bill