Eastern vs Western Front (was: La-7 vs ???)

[Juha]

Hello, it's late, so only a few comments and only on Med.
Firstly, one reason why LW was losing the production race was the earlier decisions made by OKL that it could manage the situation with lower than maximum production. OKL awaked too late to the needs of total war.
Secondly, as I have wrote earlier, the rather poor shape of LW in Med. was atleast partly a product of bad decisions at the top of OKW, I mean the decision to stay in Tunisia too long. And with effective actions of Allied forces LW had lost during the first 5 months of 1943 appr. 1.700a/c in Med. theatre. That according to Murray's LW p. 138.

And Christer, You have forgotten the Italians, they were still a part of the Axis in mid 43. According to C.J.C. Molony et al. The Mediterranean and Middle East. Volume V (London 1973) p. 45 - 46 to support oper. Husky Allies had 3.462a/c (excl. coastal a/c and air transports) of which about 2.510 were serviceable. and At the beginning of July Axis had in Sardinia, Sicily and all Italy about 1750 a/c (excl. coastal a/c and air transports) of which 960 were German. Of these 775 operational LW a/c were within effective range of Sicily (and 63 more bombers were on the point of arriving). On where exactly the Italian a/c were the book only gives the info that of them 145 (63 serviceable) were in Sicily. IMHO is that the superiority of Allies in Central Med at the eve of Oper. Husky was somewhere between 2:1 to 3:1 in serviceable combat a/c, which for a Finn doesn't sound overwhelming. But of course they had also clear intelligence superiority. Our Italian specialists surely know more exact figure to the RA, but really Christer, this had nothing to do with La-7 vs. ???.

All the best
Juha