Friday Update, June 01, 2012

[Bobb4]

Originally Posted by csThor

Soviet pilot training was inadequate even before the war - and in late 1941 and 1942 it was abysmal (hence the "Take-off - Landing" designation for green pilots). Added to this, however, must be the lack of radios in most aircraft until late 1943, a totally whacky doctrine (which chained soviet pilots to a task/target and forced them to fight in any situation) and of course the fact that the Luftwaffe was very much the "elite" institution with regards to pilot training that it wanted to be itself at least until late 1942.

And even in late 1943 the major reasons the VVS loss rate went down considerably was the influx of many new units on their side and the withdrawal of most of the german fighter force after Kursk (back to Germany). The VVS learned much, mind you, but it still suffered far too many losses simply because of unimatinative tactics and a general stubborn adhesion to its inefficient doctrine.

Agree with you. However an even more important reason is the target rich environment the German's flew in.
But one must stress German aces who flew on the Western front also out performed their British and later American counter-parts.
This could again be put down to pilot skill and target rich environments..
Sometimes I get the feeling that soviet aces do not get the credit they deserve. There were 2719 Russian aces who scored over 5 kills while the UK only had 539. The US had 1293 (two fronts including Japan) with the Germans having 2884 on two fronts, East and West.
So cut the Russians a bit of slack