In the past, when considering operational history of aircraft, pilots or units in WW2, we have usually had to rely on unit and pilot records of claims without having much access to the actual losses on the other side. Some early efforts to check records of both sides were uneven and not very accurate. In more recent years however many publications and associated teams of researchers have emerged who are checking the actual loss records against claims on both sides with a fair amount of rigor. This perhaps represents a starting point in developing a clearer picture of the actual reality of war in this Theater.
The purpose of this thread is to create a centralized place to aggregate this kind of 'hard' data for use as a reference in other discussions on this board and elsewhere.
Just including those I have read, a few of these authors / sources include:
- Christopher Shores (original work) - Fighters over the Desert, Fighters over Tunisia
- Russel Brown - Desert Warriors
- Chister Bergstrom et al - Black Cross Red Star series
- Christopher Shores et al (second effort*) - Mediterranean Air War series, Bloody Shambles series
- Michael John Claringbould et al - South Pacific Air War series, Pacific Profiles series, Pacific Adversaries series, Eagles of the Southern Sky
- John B Lundstrum - The First Team
- Stephen L. Moore - The Battle for Hell's Island
* Shores second series of books starting in the 2010s includes many more sources than were included in his first (1960's and 70s) books, for the MTO including some of the Italian records which changes the ratios quite a bit.
In several other threads these statistics have come up in the context of aircraft types including the Gladiator, Hurricane, P-39, P-40, Spitfire, Martlet, Fulmar, Beaufighter, Ki-43, A6M, Ki-61, Yak 1, La 5, Pe 2, Bf 110, Bf 109, Fw 190, CR 42, MC 200, Mc 202 and others. It has also come up many times in the context of the combat records of Aces and experten, and the records of different units and air forces.
The purpose of this thread is to aggregate this data, and also to double-check and verify it.. It is intended to be a resource which can be used as a reference in other discussions. So three kinds of posts are welcome in the thread:
- Transcriptions of hard data from sources which include claim loss records from both sides (please include your source and page number and / or date).
- New references with this kind of information, of the type in the list above.
- Corrections and clarifications to the above two types of posts.
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