The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by GuerraCivil

The renowned Finnish airwar historian Hannu Valtonen seems to suggest that only about 1:15 or 1:16 of Soviet claims during WW2 could be verified by enemy loss records! However he points out that there were differencies between units - the VVS KF (Northen Fleet Aviation) being more accurate than 7th Air Army at the northern flank of Soviet Western Front - for example Boris Safonov´s possible overclaim ratio being only the "average WW2 standard" of about 3:1.

Hello GuerraCivil,

Thank you for summarising Valtonen's thoughts. This is consistent with recent research on air operations over Nomonhan (Khalkhin Gol) in 1939, where Japanese and Soviet overclaiming was very substantial. This may have been partly a product of the employment of less experienced units in these air battles. In the case that you cite, the war in the Arctic, the 7th Air Army was one of the least important Soviet commands and did not receive much attention from the VVS leadership. It is important to note, nevertheless, that the Northern front as a whole was a succesful economy of effort undertaking for the Axis, with Soviet losses being far higher than those of Germany and Finland.

Regards,

Paul