This is the second part of my comparison of the data provided in the Soviet General Staff study on Kursk that was prepared in March-April 1944 compared to the Second and Seventeenth Air Army records that I have.
Losses:
There are one table on losses in the Soviet General Staff study on Kursk that relate to the Second and Seventeenth Air Army. They are provided below. I have broken it into two tables for this blog:
The Air Struggle Along the Enemy’s Main Axis
Air Enemy Losses:
Battles Fighter Bomber Total
5 July 81 71 83 154
6 July 64 40 65 105
7 July 74 44 78 122
8 July 65 54 52 106
9 July 62 49 22 71
10-14 July 152 112 93 205
15-18 July 43 45 27 72
Totals 541 415 420 835
Second Air Army Losses:
Fighter Bomber Assault Total
5 July 36 15 27 78
6 July 23 — 22 45
7 July 24 — 13 37
8 July 24 1 16 41
9 July 16 1 15 32
10-14 July 49 14 75 138
15-18 July (the figures in the line above cover from 10-18 July)
Totals 172 31 168 371
Now, these figures have been discussed before. The losses of the German VIII Air Corps was 111 planes, vice the 835 claimed here. The losses of the Second Air Army according to the records we reviewed was 481 planes from 5 to 18 July: see Appendix IV, Table II.32 (page 1424) of Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka), vice the 371 reported here. This report also does not include Seventeenth Air Army claims or losses. The Seventeenth Air Army’s losses were significant (182 planes). So, it does appear that the Soviet General Staff study basically leaves out 292 out of their 663 airplanes losses (44% of their losses), effectively under reporting their air losses by almost half.
This is concerning, for it does appear that Soviet General Staff study is understating the Second Air Army losses, omitting the considerable losses from the Seventeenth Air Army and of course, grossly overclaiming the number of German aircraft shot down. This was in an internal classified report that was supposed to be an analysis of the battle. Hard to properly analyze if your data is not correct.