Spitfire with Red Stars, Spitfire in Soviet Union service

Thanks for the insights.

I know the Zero evolved, but were the changes universally regarded as improvements? The addition of cockpit armor and self-sealing tanks may have been welcome, but it came at the expense of speed. Did production Zeros use something other than the 940hp Sakae engine? That's not so much when you're flying against later American fighters with 2000hp or more.

What I was actually referring to was that early success made the Japanese complacent. They designed more effective aircraft, but didn't really build so many of them. The inferiority of the Wildcat and P-40 inspired the Americans (OK, "made them desperate" might be a better description )

I agree what I initially understood was that japanese did not improve the Zekes and kept flying same plane all time during the war.
Thanks Zayets - that's what I also said, Yak1b got in big enough numbers to the frontline squads starting 1943. For '42 and '42 they ahd to do with Yak7b and Yak1 which were inferior to Yak1b (please keep in mind the difference between paper and real production characteristics).

There was an article on Spitfires in Soviet service, printed in the French magazine 'Avions'.

The best photo coverage of the type can be found in the Finnish historian Carl-Fredrik Guest's series of books, titled: 'Red Stars', published by Apali.

Gen. Dénes