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month, but not more than 3,000 a month. Germany has 
more planes than the Russians at the front at this time 
but the quality of many of the German planes is not 
first-class - they are rough, plain machines, in which 
pilots fly without a long training. Some pilots they 
have captured indicated that their training was short and 
consisted of only a "practical course". He realizes that 
Germany moved to the Russian front a great many aircraft, 
which types are no longer being built in German factories. 
He thinks that Germany underrated the ability of the 
Russian Air Force and thought that these second-rate planes 
could operate successfully against them. The Russians 
have experienced no trouble in destroying these planes. 
The Henkel plane was faster than the new Messerschmitt.
On the whole the most useful plane the Germans have against 
the Russians is the Junkers 88, which is as good or better 
than anything of that type that the Russions have. 
          He stated that the Germans are putting 20 mm. cannon 
in their fighters; some have 12 mm. machine guns. Stalin 
said that all fighters must have cannon in modern warfare. 
He has equipped all his fighters with cannon or heavy 
calibre machine guns, and he stated the Russians proposed 
to have no fighters without cannon or the heaviest 
calibre machine guns.
     The Russians put their old fighter planes on the 
front, and these have a speed of only 440 kilometres per 
hour, but they have been very useful and successful 
against many of the planes that the Germsns put on 
Russia's western front. They have seven to eight 
thoussnd of these older type fighters.