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Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces Please use this forum to discuss the German Luftwaffe and the Air Forces of its Allies. |
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#21
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
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A case can be made that Soviet claims should be much less acurrate than those of the RAF and USAAF. First of all, gun cameras were very rare in the VVS, even at the end of the war. Second, many Soviet claims were made during large combined-arms operations, where the situation was even more confused than during the Battle of Britain and high overclaiming therefore very likely. Another important factor is the geographical extent of the battlefields, more similar to the Pacific than to Western Europe, which made verification difficult. The formations may have been smaller on the Eastern Front, but very few of them are as well documented as the ones which flew in the Arctic, you might not quite appreciate this as the beneficiary of so much good Finnish research A few Soviet aces, including Gulaev, have very high ratios of victories to missions flown, which may be a sign of overclaiming. However, I think this and much of the above discussion is not particularly significant. Whether or not some pilots overclaimed or not matters little for the course of the air war, as has often been mentioned on this forum. The more interesting and substantive discussion would focus on why certain air forces were more effective than others and what effect this had on the war as a whole. To give a specific and highly relevant example, the RAF exerted an influence on the Luftwaffe's resource distribution in 1941 which was far in excess of what any discussion of aces would suggest. Regards, Paul |
#22
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
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Juha |
#23
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
I think that the accuracy of claims is not irrelevant when trying to judge the effectiveness of air units, specially fighter units. When looking the stats of certain units, the "top scorers" make a substantial contribution - thus it has some importance. Inflated kill/loss -stats give wrong picture of airwar and can lead to wrong conclusions. The more inflated the air victory stats is the more false picture it gives about the efficiency of certain air units, certain tactics and certain strategy.
The RAF failed to achieve enough positive results in 1941-1942 with Circus operations and the actual kill/loss -stats were highly unfavourable for RAF - big numerical superiority did not bring the hoped air dominance over Western Europe. Effectively just two Luftwaffe regiments (JG 26 and JG 2) tied down much bigger enemy forces and managed to inflict them bigger losses than suffered themselves. How much did the inflated RAF kill/loss -stats with these operations effect in the continuing somewhat dubious strategy and committing too many Spitfires in rather futile operations is very interesting question. Many Spitfires would have found better service outside of Britain much earlier like sending them to defend Malta and stregthening DAF in North Africa by late 1941/early 1942. |
#24
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
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Juha |
#25
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
RAF night aces claims that are mostly accurate:
JRD Braham John Cunningham RP Steven |
#26
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
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6/JG 27 Oblt Rudolf Sinner 2 P-40s Stab II/JG 27 Gustav Rodel: 1 P-40 I/JG 27 Hans Remmer: 1 P-40 7/JG 27 Fw Walter Fink: 1 Spitfire 1/JG 27 Obfw Gunther Steinhausen 1 Hurricance 2/JG 27 Lt Hans-Anold Stahlschmidt 2 Hurricance 2/JG 27 Karl von Lieres und Wilkau 1 Hurricance Italians also claimed 5 P-40s and 3 spitfires |
#27
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Off Topic, but Relevant
I've been reading John B. Lundstrom's, The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign : Naval Fighter Combat from August to November 1942 which is superlative. (I read it cover to cover, and then immediately began reading it again.)
Lundstrom studied Japanese after-action reports for every day of the campaign (including Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz) and compared Japanese aerial combat victory claims against actual American losses. He also studied American after-action reports for every day of the campaign (including Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz) and compared American aerial combat victory claims against actual Japanese losses. BUY THIS BOOK. It's absolutely shocking--the documented Japanese over-claiming in particular--to the point that the constant, daily, every single mission 5x and even 10x over-claiming had (in my opinion) a significant effect on the outcome of the entire Solomons campaign. Bronc |
#28
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
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Juha |
#29
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Re: Off Topic, but Relevant
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Juha |
#30
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Re: The confirmation of air victories of top Allied aces by LW sources?
No, that was not true, RAF lost 12 aircrafts shot down or crash landing as a result of enemy fighters or fail to return from mission, causes unknown, these includes at least 2 Hurricances lost in reconnaissance missions that could hardly be the Marseille's "Kills", apart from that RAF also lost 1 fighter shot down by flak and another fighter shot down by "friendly" fire
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