Comparing WWII fighter victories

The Luftwaffe, along with the RAF and I believe both Japanese and VVS DON’T count air to ground kills.

Dave

The German figures are so high because they wiped out many obsolete airforces in their spread across europe. The Russians had about 20,000 aircraft at the start of barbarossa but the vast majority were destroyed on the ground by bombers and those that did get into the air were mostly Polikarpovs or early model Migs that were designed for high altitude and high speed… interceptors, not fighters.
Also the eradication of the various airforces of the continent of europe added to their numbers.

Well, this may be like comparing apples with oranges but I added up the 6 page “partial listing” of aces in Walter Musciano’s book “Messerschmitt Aces” and came up with 36,914 air victories. And of course the complete count is higher since this only lists the aces…and the totals for some of them aren’t listed.

All of those victories weren’t just in 109s. Galland is listed with 104 but at least one of his victories was in the 262.

Other than that it does give a rough relative comparison with the US fighter victories.

Dennis

As a P-40 nut that number is way too low to me.

I can’t say what the exact count is, but you can bet it’s a lot higher than just 481.

Just had a quick look at the figures for the La-7 around 5000.

Would take a while to dig up the figures for the Yak-3, Yak-9, La5 series etc etc.

– Hamtech.

481 victories for the P-40 seems low to me too. The AVG “Flying Tigers” shot down 286 Japanese aircraft with their P-40s which would only leave 195 victories for all of the rest of the Kittyhawk and Warhawk pilots that flew with all of the Allied countries IF this number includes the AVG.

Dennis

The RNZAF scored 100 victories with the P40 in the Pacific (plus at least two ‘own goal’ shoot downs of other RNZAF P40’s in training!).

There must have been many more victories scored by the Australians in the Pacific too, and also the RAF, RAAF and RSAF in the Western Desert. Then there were P40’s in the European campaign too. And didn’t the Dutch fly them in the Pacific also?

That figure must be for one particular Mk of the aircraft? Or just plain wrong.

481 victories for the P-40 seems low to me too. The AVG “Flying Tigers” shot down 286 Japanese aircraft with their P-40s which would only leave 195 victories for all of the rest of the Kittyhawk and Warhawk pilots that flew with all of the Allied countries IF this number includes the AVG.

Dennis

I’m assuming that these are air-to-air victories

I noticed on my Flying Legends Calender at work that in the notes for this month’s P-51 photo, there is mention of 4,950 victories in the air.

Regards,

Paul

I know the Corsair’s kill tally is from ALL services of all nations and is limited to WW2, so I would assume that the same is true for the rest of the types…did’nt know the Jug finished that high, but it makes sense…and of course the Hellcat is right where it should be, at the top of the class with a 19 to 1 kill ratio…the advantage of being an easy to fly, easy to land fighter transported by carrier right into the middle of the HOTTEST battles…

Mark

P40 count looks surprisingly low if all theatre are included.

Question about those tallies: Are those the tallies of the US fighters flown by US military pilots? Many of those types were flown by other nations, and I am positive that there were kills by them.

Wonder if the P-40 total include the AVG mercenaries?

Given the variable means of counting, variable reliability of kills, it’s going to be vague at best. You can’t ignore the Russian front, but accurate figures? Going to be difficult.

The weight has to be for a/c in frontline service for longest and in non air superiority situatios – so the weight has to be for the 109 -Taking air power, holding it and on East and Western fronts for the entire war.
Cheers

You can bet the Bf109 total will be much higher than the rest, what with the multiple 100+ kill aces!