Catch22
Major
Yes, I suppose, but the quality of the German pilots was pretty bad in those days as well, save for the experten of course.
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There were many MANY incompetent Russian pilots in 1945 Catch... The numbers that died totally oblivious to what was goin on around them is astounding....
I will agree that the overall quality of VVS pilots towards late44-45 had improved significantly
Just look at the late war kill ratios for the Finns flying Brewster Buffalos against front line Soviet Aircraft, look at the list of German aces, almost 90% of those kills in the East. Tell me the Soviets didn't routinely put untrained pilots into fighters.That is entirely false. The La-7 was an excellent aircraft at low levels, and by the time it entered service the roles (though still exaggerated), would have been reversed. The quality of the Russian pilots got better as the war went on, while late in the war the German quality went down due to attrition. Stating that a Soviet pilot is incompetent is just simply wrong. I could understand if we were talking early war, but we're not, as both the La-7 and Fw 190F-8 were late war aircraft.
Just look at the late war kill ratios for the Finns flying Brewster Buffalos against front line Soviet Aircraft, look at the list of German aces, almost 90% of those kills in the East. Tell me the Soviets didn't routinely put untrained pilots into fighters.
If a Soviet pilot was good, it was because he learned to be good on the job. The only reason the Soviet pilots got better is they formed a core group of survivors who learned the tricks of the trade and made it while their buddies made little painted marks on the sides of Me 109s. Once they had some seasoned pilots to take their young comrades under their wing, it got better, but the Red Army was no better about throwing young men into the fire in airplanes than they were with their infantry.
Things did get rough for Germany, and the situation being reversed is certainly a possibility. I'd still put my money on the German because of how many top German aces survived the war.I guess my point was that the quality of the Soviet pilots had improved dramatically by the end of the war, and that the Germans by that point were just as likely to have a 16 year old farmboy in the cockpit. I wasn't saying that the Soviets had suddenly mass amounts of great pilots, just that they may not have been as bad as some people think.
Johannes Steinhoff, an ace with 176 victories (152 on the Eastern Front) described the standard of Soviet pilots in combat:
In fighting the Soviets, we fought an apparatus, not a human being--that was the difference. There was no flexibility in their tactical orientation, no individual freedom of action, and in that way they were a little stupid. If we shot down the leader in a Soviet fighter group, the rest were simply sitting ducks, waiting to be taken out.
The F8 is a great ground attack aircraft indeed. But for heavily armored tanks, it has limited effectiveness, IMO, due to such a limited ordnance loadout option. Even the F8's strong guns had difficulty penetrating the heavy tanks and it only had 1 drop IIRC. The jug could carry a decent bomb load, had 2 drops and could even carry 8 HVARS.
Personally, from a pure aircraft standpoint, I like the FW F8 better (believe it or not). It's a better cockpit layout and more of a true "pilot's" aircraft, but if I were actually flying one in battle, it'd be hard for me to not take the Jug.
The F-8 also had provisions for:
2 drop tanks
3 SC 250
88mm Panzerschreck
Panzerblitz
R4M
I'll admit, I'm a bit ignorant of the loadout options the F8 could deploy. That list is as impressive as it is interesting (88mm Panzerschreck?!)
U been smokin crack or just huffin the paint fumes???Those 5 inch rockets are hard to beat. They hit what you aim at. Not too much drop...