Cobras, Mustangs, Thunderbolts, Eastern vs Western front, Franek vs ...

[kalender1973]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

Re the like/dislike of the Spitfire. My understanding is that the deliveries of Spitfire Mk.Vs to the Southern front were unpopular, because the aircraft was already outdated and not suited to the rough operations of the Soviet front line (although it seems to have coped well enough in the Western Desert, the Indian/Burmese jungles and Italian dirt strips!). Some of the early deliveries were also second-hand and somewhat well-worn, which didn't help. However the Mk.IXs were another matter, and retained for PVO units because of the failure of Soviet designs for the higher-altitude intercept role after the MiG 3.

Hi Graham,
in this case I would say, the problem is on your side :-) IIRC the Britain has always production problem with Spitfire therefore you can not deliver the necessary number. What is 150 SpitV for VVS? It 3-4 week fights you need the new delivery. If you were able to deliver 2000-3000 planes in the middle of 1943, they were welcomed. Btw, the second hand SpitfireVB again new G-2 and G-4 was also not a wunderwaffe, therefore I don't beleive that pilots from 57 GIAP requested it intensive :-)
Maybe you already read about Spitfire over Kuban:
http://lend-lease.airforce.ru/englis...spit/index.htm
If you have question, Igor Zlobin maybe can help you.

What SpitfireIX concern, it delivery was elementary to late. The introducing of new plane type, especially foreign type, is not easy for VVS technical service and therefore if you have equal or even better own type, you will avoid the introducing. The test with IX show the advantage of La-7, Yak-9U, Yak-3 in low and middle attitude, therefore the Spitfire were not sent to the front line but delivered to Home AD and IIRC they shot down one german recce plane over Leningrad in 1945.