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        105Â
7 July                     74         44         78        122 Â
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:  Â
              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) Â
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.
