Quite seriously: I am considering soviet war stories to be usually grossly blown out of proportion on behalf of the soviet authorities (Stalin ordered "improved" historiography after the war). Far too often this or that soviet pilot was injured/got his aircraft set on fire/whatever and still outfought so-and-so-many german fighters. I have read too many stories like this, most of them following exactly the same script without many or any deviations, so I simply discard them all as potentially or even most probably made up.
Sorry and hats off to the veterans. No slant against them, they're as much the victims of state propaganda as the general audience.
