# Best Air Force 1941-43



## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Mar 31, 2011)

What was the best all around Air Force during the period of 1941 to 1943?

This does not include Naval Air Forces...


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## tomo pauk (Mar 31, 2011)

Voted for RAF.
While inn 1941 RAF is lagging (only) after Luftwaffe in some fields, during 1943 things were greatly improved through hard work sacrifice.
In single fighter niche they have parity with anybody else (Luftwaffe comes close, lacking longer-ranged SE fighter like Spit Mk. VIII; Typhoon has it's bugs ironed out by the second half of 1943), in 2-engined bombers/GA class Mossie is clear winner, while Beaufighter is also cool (USAAF Luftwaffe have somewhat of a parity here), in heavy bombers class they have Lancaster as cutting edge (US comes close, others are far away), Sunderland is a tough contender in MP class, night fighters/intruders (Mossie, Beau) are the best (Luftwaffe comes close, but not that close). Needs for transport planes are covered by US planes, though Brits produced useful designs too. Ground attack jobs are acomplished by useful designs (Beau, Hurri IIC/D), along with LL hardware. LL stuff complements in other classes, too, except in NF class.
Electronic equipment, both on ground on board, is world leader. 
Pilot quality is now on par with what Germans Japanese have to offer. 
All stated makes RAF number 1 air force for this time period.


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## parsifal (Apr 1, 2011)

I think the RAF was the most proficient, though it was hard to pass up the JAAF. If it had included the IJN air forces, i probably would vote for the japs


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Apr 1, 2011)

I think by this time it is too much of a toss up. I believe that until Mid-Late 1941 the Luftwaffe still had the upper hand, but during this period until 1943 the Luftwaffe and RAF would continually trade places with the upper hand. The USAAF was certainly beginning its rise however. As for Japan I agree with parsifal and the only thing holding it back is the fact that I did not include the IJN forces (we can start something like this for naval air power as well). The VVS in my opinion is plagued with too many problems including poor equipment and poor training.

As for the poll above...

Even though I believe it to be a toss up between the Luftwaffe and RAF with both sides trading supremecy, I voted for the LW only to make the poll above more interesting.


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## renrich (Apr 1, 2011)

I did not vote for the following reasons. I am not sure about whether the USN and US Marine air forces are included. If they aren't, then why have the Japanese included? If the USN and Marines are included, then by 1943, the US forces might be dominant or at least equal to LW and RAF. If we take the period 1941-43 as a whole, the RAF and the LW are probably tied for the most dominant.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Apr 1, 2011)

renrich said:


> I did not vote for the following reasons. I am not sure about whether the USN and US Marine air forces are included. If they aren't, then why have the Japanese included? If the USN and Marines are included, then by 1943, the US forces might be dominant or at least equal to LW and RAF. If we take the period 1941-43 as a whole, the RAF and the LW are probably tied for the most dominant.



I did not include them because I do not wish to include carrier based aviation in these polls.


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## Glider (Apr 1, 2011)

Has to be the RAF for the reasons as laid out by Tomo. Its worth adding that the RAF torpedo bombers were good both by day Beaufort soon to be Beaufighter and by night Wellington. The often overlooked command and control aspects were also receiving considerable attention in particular Operation Spartan which played a large part in developing and trying new tactics for GA integrating GA aircraft, Light and Medium bombers as well as liasion with the Army.

I believe its fair to say that no country had an organisation similar to the 2 TAF by the end of 1943.


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## Saetta66 (Apr 7, 2011)

I am very surprised my italian colleagues didn't vote for Regia Aeronautica: 1941/42 has been our best moment, definitely. See Africa and Malta.


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## drgondog (Apr 12, 2011)

Its your poll Chris but I agree Renrich. Airpower and the ability to support national objectives on a Global scale was essential to stop the Axis in 1942 and win the war 1943-1945. Only two parties brought the full range of strategic, tactical and logistics support to the airwar in 1942 -that is RAF/RNAF and USAAF/USN/USMC. 

Nobody else could deliver airpower simultaneously across the globe and IMHO it doesn't make sense to limit the discussion to just land based capabilities? It seems like comparing one arm butterfly competition in swimming.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Apr 12, 2011)

drgondog said:


> Nobody else could deliver airpower simultaneously across the globe and IMHO it doesn't make sense to limit the discussion to just land based capabilities? It seems like comparing one arm butterfly competition in swimming.



Fair enough, I can change it tomorrow some time, and start up a new one.


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## parsifal (Apr 12, 2011)

Even though the USN is going to hold the advantage in terms of daytime strike capability, by 1943 this was a rather narrow and limited field of carrier warfare. By the end of 1942, the USN emerged from the climactic battles of 1942 with just one operational (and even then this carrier was damaged) fleet carrier. By early 1943 this had increased to two, with the return of Saratoga, but it was not until August that the first of the Essex class were worked up and operational.

In 1942, the USN had fought a series of heroic actions and proved its mettle, but then so too had the RN in its actions in th latter half of 1942. The RN had in 1943 greatly expanded its ASW CVE fleet, which contributed materially to the most important battle of the war, the battle of the Atlantic. USN, once again lagged in this regard. Also, the brits IMO maintained a superiority in night strike capability...to the USN it was almost a novelty, and never really used for offensive operations, whereas for the british night strike (offensive) remained their principal method of air attack.

I also think that the RN held an advantage in rough weather carrier operations. No USN carrier ever operated on the Arctic run, whereas the british by the summer of 1943 were regulalry escorting the Arctic convoys with CVEs.

Britain maintained an advantage in protection of their carriers, whether that be the re-construction of the CVEs, or in their armoured flight deck carriers. The USN was, however on top of the game in terms of realizing that the best defence was in numbers of aircraft. In terms of straight up performance the USN was in front as well, though by not as much as one would expect....the seafire remained a pretty good point defnce aircraft, and the RN was using Hellcats and other LL equipment. They had the Firefly, which had no real equivalent in the US inventory. The barracuda was, IMO opinion inferior to the TBF, but did have some niche capabilities. and the RN still used large numbers of TBFs as well


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