This does not indicate anything about the individual skills of the VVS pilots versus their USAF/RAF counterparts. But it speaks volumes with regards to the overall effectiveness of the respective air forces.
It would indicate that if you totally misunderstand the nature of the combat in the West and the LW's roll in it.
The VVS OTOH as Christer points out in that thread didn’t fly mass formations. They flew mostly tactical sorties spread out along the huge front. As such when they made contact with the LW they were at an altitude disadvantage and normally engaged by an equal or greater number of LW.
The Eastern experten had hundreds of hours of combat experience in that type of combat. This was the "furball" arena much like NA. See JG54 in Kurland.
In the west and over the skies of the Reich the situation was different. The LW was tasked with attacking the bombers and to avoid pitched combat with allied fighters.
Not only were they at a numerical disadvantage for the most part but the freedom of maneuver was restricted to the task at hand, shooting down the bombers.
There have been volumes written on the subject and we gamers aren’t going to come close to fully exploring the issue.
The point of Christer's post is lost of most in this thread. There are 2 myths you here a lot in the west about the Il2.
1. It was a flying tank.
2. The VVS sacrificed large numbers of IL2s to grind down the wehrmacht.
He doesn’t touch the 1st myth but it has been discussed on these forums before. I will add it was not a "flying tank".
Christer's point is that Il2’s were no more sacrificed then the USAAF / RAF bombers were sacrificed in the west.
Of course a LW fighter pilot was far more likely to be shot down in the west. But the 2 theaters are completely different and it’s clearly a case of apples and oranges.
Any comparison between the allied bombing campaign in the west and the LW in BoB is limited at best. These were completely different circumstances as well.
