Soviet losses were in the order of 88000, 46000 of them operational. The 20000 in 1941 were total losses, with some 10600 being operational.
Total German losses may well have been 28000, but operationally about 15000.
The operational loss ratios 1941-1944 were more than 3 to 1 every year for the Soviets compared to the Luftwaffe; losses of the smaller Axis will naturally lower the overall ratio, but probably not much.
I doubt that there are any loss figures for air to air, so what that ratio is anyone's guess.
What are your sources for those numbers?
The main issue with these numbers is 'what constitutes shot down'? The Germans reported aircraft damage by percentage, so for example if a plane gets a bullet in the radiator and makes a forced landing, but it subsequently recovered, radiator patched, new prop put on, and it's back in the air a week or two later, the Germans report it as 10% damaged. This is not usually included as a 'loss', but from the point of view of a Russian pilot who shot the bullet into it's radiator and made it force-land, it was indeed shot down.
Since Germans were fighting defensively for the most part after 1942, many of their lost aircraft were later recovered (at least until their situation really fell apart) and even aircraft reported by the Germans themselves as 40, 50 or even 80% damaged may not be counted as 'victories' in todays estimates of win / loss ratios, which often only count the totally destroyed German fighters but sometimes count all seriously damaged or crash landed Soviet fighters.
If anyone is curious, I decided to take a deeper dive into Soviet production and losses.
Some production figures:
Il2 Sturmovik - 35,000
SB bomber = 6,500 (all produced before 1942)
Su-2 bomber = 900
Tb 3 = 800
I-153 (3400) + I-15 (1000*) = 4,400 - still active on the front line into 1942
I-16 = 8,600 still active into 1943
LaGG-3 = 6,500 still active into 1943
MiG-1 (100) + MiG-3 = (3,400) = 3,500
PO-2 / U-2 = ~10,000
Hawker Hurricane 2,800
Easy for Luftwaffe to shoot down...
...not so easy for Luftwaffe to shoot down
Of the above list, I would consider most of the 13,000 open cockpit I-16 and I-15 / 153 biplane series fighters to be obsolete. Almost all of them were shot down, some by the Japanese and no doubt quite a few lost in accidents, but probably 3/4 shot down and claimed as victories by the Germans. Some of the later model I-16s were good enough to at least give a skilled pilot a chance so I'll not count those. Still, this was a fairly big chunk of the Soviet operational losses. Say 8,000 of them. I didn't count the PO -2 / U-2 because I don't know how many they lost, I know a lot of them were used for less risky night missions but I'm sure they lost a bunch regardless.
At the start of WW2 90% of the Soviet Bomber force were SB bombers. About 2,000 SB bombers were deployed on the Western Front, and were rapidly wiped out at an astonishing rate. By 1942 all of the original bombers and a large number of replacements were lost. Say conservatively 3,000 lost in combat conting replacements. (Not counting the more sophisticated AR-2 development of the SB since it was a more effective aircraft, albeit built in very small numbers, though most of them were destroyed too.)
TB-3 bombers were also, needless to say, completely obsolete and look like they belonged in another era. Nevertheless they too were used as front line aircraft and the majority were destroyed. Say 500.
So of the German victories in 1941-1942, I would estimate 11,500 were obsolete biplanes, open-cockpit 30's era fighters with no radios, & obsolete bombers. Most of these were lost in 1942 so that is a fairly large chunk of that original 20,000.
The Il2s were not obsolete, but part of their design / operational philosophy was that they were essentially expendable. Their mission was to destroy German tanks first, and survive second. According to
this article, the Soviets lost ~11,000 Il2s in the war.
The LaGG-3 and MiG -3 weren't obsolete either, but they were substandard, as were the Hurricanes. Most were shot down by 1943. That is another big chunk of planes (~12,000) of which a lot were lost in accidents (as these were either unfamilair / unstable / twitchy types) probably at least half were claimed by the Luftwaffe. Lets say 6,000.
So to get back to the point about Yak series fighters, of 46,000 operational losses (if we accept that figure as accurate), it looks to me like ~28,000 of them were obsolete 1930's era aircraft, Sturmoviks, or substandard (LaGG-3 / MiG-3 / Hurricane).
That leaves 18,000 modern aircraft, to be divided among the production / wartime delivered modern aircraft:
mainly
Bombers (Soviet and Anglo-American) ...
Pe-2 ~ 8,000 (11,000 total but some were made after the war)
Tu-2 ~1,500 (2,200 total but some were made after the war)
Il-4 - 1,500
A-20 - ~2,700
B-25 - ~500
Il-10 (uber Sturmovik so to speak) ~1,000
..
Soviet fighters ...
Yak-1 / 1B -8,700
Yak-7 - 6,300
La-5 / 5 FN / 7 - ~8,000 (some built after the war)
Yak-9 - ~15,000
Yak-3 - ~3,000 (4,800 total but some were made after the war)
.. and
Anglo-American fighters
P-39 - ~4,000
P-40 - ~2,400
Spitfire Mk V ~140
Spitfire Mk IX 1,200
P-63 - ~3,000
Probably half of those remaining 18,000 lost aircraft were among the 15,000 modern bombers used by the Soviets during the war. So say 9,000.
the remaining 9,000 lost aircraft would be found among the modern fighters:
15,000 early Yaks, (1941 through 1943)
8,000 La 5 series (from mid 1942),
18,000 late model Yaks, (from late 1942)
5,000 modern Anglo-American fighters used in front line / VVS units. Many of these were used up in the earlier war years (1942-1943) while the remaining 5,700 (about half the P-40s, all the Spit IXs, and most of the P-63s) were used mainly for PVO (air defense of rear areas) or in the East. I also didn't count P-47s because I don't think the Soviets used them much. Not sure if there were any other British aircraft other than Hurricanes and Spitfires... did they use any English bombers?
My conclusion is that most of the modern Soviet aircraft, those designed after 1942, had a pretty good ratio of survival. The Soviets lost probably about 28,000 obsolete aircraft and vulnerable Sturmoviks, they lost another 9,000 or so modern bombers, and based on the 46,000 figure (if true) they probably lost about 9,000 modern fighters of ~50,000 available (including PVO units). Of that 9,000 I think probably a third were Anglo-American P-39s and P-40s. Assuming most of the Yak lost were the earlier types, assume about 5,000 or 1/3 of them were lost. This compares well as a wartime survival ratio to ALL of the modern German fighters, mainly the 33,000 Bf 109s and 20,000 Fw 190s being lost, albeit many in the West. The later model Yaks and La 5 series fighters obviously had a fairly good and improving outlook.
One of the other major significant changes that happened in 1943 was that Soviet planes started to have more functional radios, which is huge. Prior to that only the Lend-lease Anglo-American planes had good radios. Once most of the Soviet fighters in particular have functional radios they can compete on much more equal terms with the Luftwaffe. By then like the RAF and USAAF they had also adopted the German Rotte / Finger Four system of two pairs of fighters, which was also a major improvement. And of course build quality issues were being rapidly resolved.
So the
TL : DR is that my guess from looking at the numbers is
not too many Yak fighters got shot down compared to the number of Bf 109s lost,
especially later model Yak fighters. Most of the glory of the experten was won in wiping out obsolete aircraft in 1941 and 1942. The losses in more modern Soviet fighters are probably comparable to the losses of Bf 109s and Fw 190s on the Russian Front. The obsolete or / more vulnerable Me 110 (6,000 built), Ju 87 (6,500 built), Do 17 (2,000 built), Hs 123 (250 built), He 111 (6,500 built) not to mention Italian MC 200, and so on could correlate with the more obsolescent or substandard Soviet fighters destroyed in the first couple of years of the war (at which time the Germans certainly had a substantial advantage). The more modern Ju 88 (15,00 built), Ju 188 (1,200 built), Do 217 (1,900 built), Hs 129 (800 built) etc. were also of course all destroyed by the end of the conflict.
S
* 3,300 I-15 were produced but per Wikipedia only 1,000 were still in active use at the outbreak of WW2. They continued in front line use (along with I-153) until 1942
i have done that for a couple of months, for example March of 1943 and Dec of 1942, and have been going through putting notes in the margins for a more comprehensive count but not sure when I can deliver on that.
