Quote:
Originally Posted by SirBruce
Were so good the planes and pilots from Russia as they appear in the game? I supposed they had old planes and not so trained men for them. Maybe there was a really fast evolution in the year since the first German wave and the post winter one, but... so big?
|
At first, the Red Air Force was nothing but some guys with little flying experience. Some were either veterans from the war in Spain, or fighting in later 1937-38 against the Japanese during their little border war in Manchuria. So when WW2 broke out, the Luftwaffe went straight for the airfield, destroying every plane they could fire at. But those who did get to make it through the 41' offensive blitz, they were all pulled back and retrained in new tactics. Like during 1942 when all the machine factories were pulled behind the Ural mountains etc. out of range of any German bomber/fighter, then the pilots and planes became exceptional. So by 1942, the Red Air Force was becoming more determined with moral and better equipped and agile planes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Swagger7
The Russian planes were actually pretty good. (on par with Germany/Britain/America) The I-16, not so much, but it was old. I'm pretty sure Soviet pilots didn't get as much training as other countries' pilots early on (they were desperate) but they taught new pilots tactics that were easy to employ, like flying the whole mission at high speed to avoid getting jumped from behind and making slashing attacks, then bugging out. After the pilots got experience this way they were given more training in tactics. At least that's what I read from a translated interview with a Soviet ace. I'm not sure how widespread this form of "on the job" training was or how long it lasted. Do you have any idea, Soviet Ace?
|
Most Russian planes later like the Yak-3, Yak-9, La-5, were all more or less more capable than the FWs that they were up against. Basically any German plane you put up against them, they were more likely to win. The Yak-3 could out turn, out roll, and climb better than the FW-190A3 and out roll and turn the other later FWs that it came up against. But against the 109s, that was were the La-5s (Though still a low-medium altitude plane) came into play. They could poor heavier cannon rounds into the 109s. And actually, the 109s and 190s did avoid turning combat with the I-16s since the little plane could pull tighter than both. The MiG-3 though it may look fast, was actually quite slow and was often chewed up against its 109 and 190 counterparts.