How to care about my fighters?

[liverp00l]

Hi,
I am new member here. I have just started the game, after many hours of play WitE1. I have some problem with my fighters. The gruppes are totally grinded to the bone within 1-2 turns. Their only air direction is to participate int he ground support missions, to protect the bombers. At the end of summer 41, my gruppes are filled with old prewar Hs129 fighters from the pool… I think my losses are way too high at the end of september 1941. So, what can I do to maintain the air supremacy, and not to lose so many fighters? (In the first turn I inflict cca. 3200 losses to the enemy, cca. 140 friendly losses in turn.)

Thanks,
Milan (from Hungary)

[liverp00l]

Here is my losses at the end of Sept41:

[loki100]

A few hints.

a) turn off GS on a regular basis, only use it for key battles
b) its often distance/miles flown that trigger operational losses so try to get your fighters relatively close to the front
c) try not to use drop tanks
d) manage using the commander's report, I set airgroups with fatigue much over 10 to rest

Also some of this is inevitable. You start with what are going to be obsolete versions and the new production only really kicks in by October. So expect them to be run down. The good thing is the late 41 and early 42 production is substantial (& you can start to use the Fw-190s). Also you will be able to rest them a lot over winter, do this every blizzard turn.

so a combination of less usage, more planes will repair the situation. By mid-42 you'll have more planes than you can use

[carlkay58]

I would also like to mention that the German fighters are in the midst of upgrading their 109s. Unfortunately the 41C starts with the ending of the old model being built and the start of the next model being available for deployment (four weeks after initial build) so the German fighters are essentially without replacements until mid-Sept 41.