| Joe, No argument here. The problems tend to be, as you know, getting an honest account of what happened. I can understand the pilots being excited and making claims based on what they saw in the blink of an eye, but it is so hard to get it sorted when even the daily assessments of the day only list a loss as "combat loss" with no explanation. The Russians appear to be honest about their own losses, as it fits in with what they report for their TO&Es but their claims are a bit much. I think the pilots also made honest claims but given their equipment limitations (e.g. bizarre gun camera timers and that sort of thing) they also had people taking it on faith. Finding the actual results, and putting them in perspective to get an honest, objective view of the war is probably a task that would take more than my lifetime. But, we try! Cookie Sewell AMPS |