XPost: soc.history.what-if, alt.history.what-if   
   From: SolomonW@citi.com   
      
   On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 10:11:33 -0700, Chrysi Cat wrote:   
      
   > On 11/24/2019 12:03 AM, The Horny Goat wrote:   
   >> On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 13:46:08 +1100, SolomonW    
   >> wrote:   
   >>   
   >>>> I apologize for leaving the impression that I thought Red Air Force   
   >>>> pilots were as good as Allied and German pilots - perhaps by 1945 but   
   >>>> a LOT of not so superb pilots were dead.   
   >>>   
   >>> How good they were is disputed, there was an air battle during ww2 where   
   >>> the Russians and the US fought and technically the Russians won.   
   >>   
   >> When was this battle? If it happened at all it had  to be somewhere   
   >> near the Elbe in 1945 and as I said the Red Air Force was pretty   
   >> competent by then.   
   >>   
   >> Totally different situation from 1941 - no one suggests the Red Air   
   >> Force in the first 6 months of the invasioni were at the standard of   
   >> the RAF or Luftwaffe over Britain in 1940. Some individual pilots were   
   >> but not overall by a long shot.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Read the article (though preferably replacing the for-profit Wikiwand   
   > address with the corresponding Wikipedia one).   
      
      
   I prefer it.   
      
   >  It's in Serbia almost   
   > exactly 75 years ago.   
   >   
   > It's also P-38s, which weren't really suitable dogfighters, against   
   > YAK-9s. Euro Theatre P-38s were not given to the best American pilots at   
   > that point-there are P-51s all over the European skies instead.   
      
   There were 22 different versions of the YAK-9, all with very different   
   fighting charateristics. I am not sure which one it was.   
      
   Having said that, I doubt there was much different between the P-38 and   
   P-51. The big issue is that the P-51 was much cheaper.   
      
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