On Thu, 13 May 2004 18:02:04 +1000, "Geoffrey Sinclair"
wrote:

Dean and the Digest match each other very well except for those few
months of P-39 and P-40 production. Other references I have tried
support the digest. So it appears Dean is incorrect.

That was my assumption: I was merely wondering out loud what systemic
error could account for the discrepancy, if any.

So yes the numbers superficially look like somehow Dean's source
eliminates Lend Lease aircraft, but of course not all Lend Lease types
were P-40s. The British were mainly receiving P-40s but also F4Fs,
the USSR was receiving most of the P-39 exports.

Yes, but many of these came from the British lend-lease allocation -
no Airacobras were being exported to the UK by mid-1942. I don't
think that should have any impact on the accounting, though.

The point here would be the British figures would quite probably
be when the aircraft arrived in theatre, an ocean voyage from the
factory in the US.

In this case I was using British Air Commision records of aircraft
exported from the US, which doesn't inlcude diversions elsewhere to
other national accounts (e.g. Kittyhawks exported to the Middle East
on British account which were then transferred to the French or USAAF
in-theatre) or losses en route. At least in the first half of 1942,
where I was actually checking individual aircraft deliveries, exports,
losses and arrivals in theatre for RAF Kittyhawks in the surviving
original records in my research.

[snip P-39 production]

So if the problem is P-40s being missed because of systematic error
in counting Lend Lease or a given model something else is happening
for the P-39.

It certainly looks like it. I'm less familiar with P-39 production,
but I can't account for any type/model designation discrepancies at
that time with them, although I could venture some opinions if it
involved an earlier chronological opinion.

I will stick to the digest figures.

Please post an explanation for the discrepancy if you can ever
discover one, though.

Gavin Bailey

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