Originally posted by Jekyll:
IMO, the 'best 10' list boils down to 'which were the 10 fighters which had the greatest effect on the aerial war? So here goes 
Why no Finnish Air Force planes on this list?
Throughout the war the finns were fighting against a numerically superior enemy. Only during the initial stages of the continuation war in summer 1941 the FAF had better equipment than the russians. During the first few weeks the Brewster pilots faced mainly the obsolescent I-16's and I-153's. They were quickly replaced with LaGG-3's and MiG's, however.
By autumn 1942 the finns were in a serious disadvantage, with even the Brewsters being outperformed by the new russian planes. All other FAF fighters were not achieving too good results, and sometimes even required BW escorts.
During winter-spring of 1943, Finland received the first 109 G-2's from Germany. This helped the BW pilots situation a lot. Even though the best russian planes had better performance than the 109's, the finns managed to establish local air superiority where ever they went.
During the last few months of the war, more G-6's were acquired, which helped the situation immensely. The Finns could stop the russian ground attack by fending off the ground attacks of the russian air force, and by escorting their own bombers to their targets. As an interesting detail, not one FAF bomber was lost to russians, when escorted by 109's.
I would definately include the BW and MT to the list. They bore the main weight of denying the use of the russian air weapon over Finland. I'd say that's quite an effect on aerial war.
In the European Theater of Operations, only two capitals of the war-going countries were not invaded. London and Helsinki.
Camo
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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
www.muodos.fi/LLv34 Brewster into AH!"The really good pilots use their superior judgement to keep them out of situations
where they might be required to demonstrate their superior skill."
[This message has been edited by LLv34_Camouflage (edited 08-11-2000).]
