Allied Versus Russian Aircraft During WWII

[csThor]

Originally Posted by addman

The Russians had a clear tactical superiority and that would've forced the allied high altitude fighters to fight at a serious disadvantage, P-51 vs La-7 at 1-3000 meters altitude, bye bye little pony.

Here I disagree. The VVS paid a high price for its enormous growth in 1943 and that price was the insanely low training it gave its aircrew. The number of soviet veteran aircrew, while always rather small in comparison to the size of any force, was considerably lower than in other air forces - even at the end of the war. A fresh american or british pilot had more flight hours than a soviet pilot with a few weeks of frontline experience ... and therefor more routine in handling his aircraft.
Secondly the VVS was always a rather rigid and inflexible institution when it came to tactics and doctrine (as was the whole Red Army, which is why the Wehrmacht could withstand it as long as it did) and did not make most of its forces. Often enough lives were squandered by utterly inimaginative tactics which in the end got the desired result but at a higher cost than any other air force would have been prepared to pay.

It's not so much the performance envelope of the aircraft involved but the considerable difference between pilot training, doctrine and tactics that set the two sides apart.