Spitfire

[knusel]

Hello,

has it ever been endeavoured to determine the grand total aerial victory score of the Supermarine Spitfire ?

Michael

[knusel]

...or is it known how many aerial victories the RAF scored in WW2 ?

Michael

[Alfred.MONZAT]

John Foreman give a grand total for the ETO in his Fighter Command War Diaries, but there is no total by aircraft type (but you can browse it or his RAF Fighter Command Victory Claims of World War 2 and sum all the victories if you want...). It's a little bellow 11k, I can give you the exact value later.

[knusel]

Good morning Alfred,

thanks for the hint.
Can you tell me that ETO grand total you mentioned ?
Does "11k" mean 11.000 ETO kills for the RAF ?

Have a nice weekend,

Michael

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Here are John Foreman's numbers (ETO - day and night fighters) :

10,736.5 : 4,779 : 3,785 (air) & 437 : 24 : 642 (ground)

[knusel]

Cool, thank you !
Did the Commonwealth record their MTO/CBI/PTO victories separately ?

Michael

[Alfred.MONZAT]

You had to understand that the RAF did not bother count their grand total and all these data are the result of the work of researchers like John Foreman and Christopher Shores who summed all the victories of the various units. For example, the later give 863.5 : 316 : 814 over Malta up to 7 November 1942. Maybe his next volumes about the Mediterranean Air War will give a grand total for this theater...
And for the CBI, PTO, Middle East, East Africa, FAA,... well we can still dream...

[knusel]

Hello Alfred,

you know, I wonder if the P-51 really was the highest scoring Allied plane ever.
We know it scored ~6000 kills (5666 by the USAAF and ~330 by the Commonwealth).
Possible candidates that might have superseded that score are the Spitfire, the Yak-9, and the La-7, aren't they ?

Kind regards,

Michael

[Alfred.MONZAT]

Spitfire scored more than 6000 that's sure (wasn't that evocated on this very forum ?). How many... That's another matter... I don't think I've ever seen someone claim the Mustang was the highest scoring Allied fighter.

Maybe the Lavochkin or Yak family scored more too, but I doubt a single model did. That's a question for our expert of the Red Air Forces.

[PMoz99]

The La-7 was only operational for the last 7 months of the war, so Iagree with Alfred that you would have to look at the whole Lavochkin family ....... Even the La-5 family would probably not go close.
Peter