highest kill ratio (5 Viewers)

[topspeed]

Once again, there were no Mustangs on the Finnish Front. Nor were there Spitfires, Lightnings or Kingcobras. This has all been well-established since the '90s. Finnish pilots misidentified a variety of domestic Soviet types for Western types. Actually on that note, in the Winter War many Finns misidentified Soviet SB and DB bombers for Martin and Douglas bombers respectively, manufactured under license in the USSR. This comes up at least a couple of times e.g. in Robert Winston's Aces Wild.

Who misidentified the SB and DB bombers during Winter War ?

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Anyway the numerically most planes were P-39 airacobras in the skies over Karelia in 1944....with Il-2s.

In case on Lars Hattinen shooting 2 Airacobras with a Morane Saulnier he was engaged with 30 Airacobras and 20 Il-2....P-39s as air cover.

When Yrjö Pallasvuo shot Airacobras in an huge dogfight he was shor down by an Airacobra... I recall he was in fight with 30-50 Airacobra...alone.

Also Captain Hans Wind with 75 kills was shot by an Airacobra...or Yak-9.

So the planes Kössi misidentified as "Mustangs" were possibly foreign type he had never seen up close before with his slow 109 G6 with R6. Most likely Airacobras.


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I was also able to interview another sergeant about what he saw in the skies during summer of 1944. He was the father of a Jukka-Talo ( talo=house ) representaive who also has died by now. Anywway his daddy told their company was totally surprised on a march....and Il-2s caused a terrifying panic that he still vividly remembered. Horses rambled and some died....and blood everywhere and screaming men.....cannot remember were they with evaquees too. Anyway...this is what most infantry men ( as well as fleeing civilians ) were witnessing on the ground. Very terrifying chaos in the head of that sergeant. I am grateful to both sergeants RIP.

 

[bf109xxl]

Anyway the numerically most planes were P-39 airacobras in the skies over Karelia in 1944....with Il-2s.

Could you please provide some figures to illustrate this?

 

[FulmenTheFinn]

Who misidentified the SB and DB bombers during Winter War ?

As I understand it was a kind of scuttlebutt going around at the time. In this particular case it was Kurt Berger who relayed it to Winston et al.

Which reminds me, in the 2000s I came across a claim from one very unreliable Finnish site, where it was claimed that in the Winter War of 1939-40 the Soviets were bombing Finland with American lend-lease bombers that still had USAAF markings on them. Complete hogwash of course; the Lend-Lease Act wasn't even passed until March 1941, with deliveries of American bombers to the USSR occurring much later. One can't help feeling though that this particular myth probably shares origins with mistaking SBs and DBs for Martin and Douglas types.

Could you please provide some figures to illustrate this?

As it so happens I made a table back in March 2025 that's perfect here. Here's the disposition of VVS forces amassed for the Soviet offensive on the Karelian Isthmus in June 1944:

In total that's:

413 Il-2
92 Il-4
71 Tu-2
182 Pe-2

36 A-20G

40 Yak-1
13 Yak-7
24 Yak-7B
287 Yak-9
88 LaGG-3
266 La-5
1 La-7

7 Hurricane
15 P-40
111 P-39

84 U-2
2 O-52
13 S-2
7 S-4
4 Li-2
2 C-47
1 Yak-6
4 Be-4

+ potentially 20 aircraft from the VVS LVF and some trainers, liaison aircraft/squadron hacks.

While these are just the forces of these units at the start of the operation, and a strength list isn't the same as a sortie list, I think it's safe to say his claim about the P-39 being the most common Soviet aircraft over the Karelian Isthmus in the summer of 1944 is not correct, not even remotely. I've never heard anyone even make such a claim before.

 

[bf109xxl]

I think it's safe to say his claim about the P-39 being the most common Soviet aircraft over the Karelian Isthmus in the summer of 1944 is not correct, not even remotely. I've never heard anyone even make such a claim before.

Excellent work, thank you! That's exactly what I expected, but I was too lazy to go through all the fighter regiments one by one.