As discussed on my post on the Soviet 728th Fighter Regiment, the Soviet air force at Kursk (in the south) appears to claim more than eight times as many planes shot down as the Germans actually lost. The graph above is from page 839 of my original books and is repeated on page 285 of my new Prokhorovka book.
So how did the Germans do?
To quote from my books (pages 839, 840 and 844 in my Kursk book or pages 285, 286 and 290 in my Prokhorovka book):
The reverse tendency is not displayed by the Germans….This comes out to a total of 658 claimed kills by the VIII Air Corps compared to 658 actual losses by the Second and Seventeenth Air Armies. It would appear that at least for this two-week period, German reporting of air claims was reasonably accurate while the Soviet claims were outrageously high….This does bring into question the validity of all Soviet ace totals. On the other hand, the fact that German claims for 4 to 18 July were almost equal to Soviet losses during that time does provide some level of confidence in the accuracy of German claims. Still, one notes that the Luftwaffe claimed 220 planes shot down by air and 40 by antiaircraft on the 5th of July, when the Soviets reported losing 187, so one should not place too much reliance on the accuracy of these claims. Yet, based upon this limited sample, it does appear that the German ace claims are usually valid while the Soviet claims are clearly inflated, and possibly inflated by several times.
I do recall reading (I think it was Len Deighton’s book) that British claims in the Battle of Britain tracked pretty well with German actual losses doubled. I believe German claims were relatively close to actual.
The British were relatively permissive in allowing claims. The Germans were not. It is not hard to see inexperienced Soviet pilots claiming kills for every plane they shot at. And the more experienced British counting every plane they shot at and had some pieces falling off or smoking up as a claim.
Aces, being generally in better control of their situation, and certainly better situation awareness, would be less likely to make those types of mistakes. So it’s not very likely that a Soviet ace with 65 kills only shot down 11. Unless of course pressured or strongly incentivized to so.