Reddit reviews Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War Against Germany (Modern War Studies (Paperback))

I recall reading an excerpt from the viewpoint of Alexander Pokryshkin (my favorite fighter pilot) in Attack of the Airacobras.

He discussed how on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, he was pulling a fighter sweep and saw a battery of these things going off.

> The smoke, dust, and fire, even from the air, looked staggering. It began to look as if an enormous explosion overtook our men. I switched frequencies and radioed any ground troops nearby...not knowing what was happening. After a forward observer enlightened me on the situation, I thought to myself, "Glad I'm not on the ground to hear that racket. But I'm sure as hell glad I'm not some poor bastard on the receiving end of it all."

Summarizing what Alexander Pokryshkin said about the P-39:

• When word of radios being in every P-39 (before any of the aircraft arrived), the Soviets began training in different aerial tactics. Everyone having a radio changed things immensely in a very good way.
  
  
• Excellent low altitude performance. Comparable to the 109/190s in Kuban (when the P-39 first saw combat in Soviet hands)
  
  
• Tricycle landing gear made landing much simpler and easier leading to less accidents when compared to the Yaks/LaGGs/MiGs they were currently flying.
  
  
• Better dive performance than the Bf 109. Not only could it dive faster but it's acceleration into/in a dive was better at lower altitudes. This was a big deal because Germans still used the simple tactic of diving away from anything that engaged them and it did work against contemporary Soviet birds. This did not work against the P-39 and in reality, it was the worst thing for the German pilot to do.
  
  
• Comparable/better maneuverability in the vertical/horizontal than the 109/190s at lower altitudes at it's time of arrival at the front.
  
  Some may argue those points but I'm just saying what Pokryshkin said. He had some ground breaking tactics implemented into the VVS with the arrival of P-39s. Tactics that led to turning around the air war and that is not an exaggeration.
  
  Great book to read about it and how the P-39 was implemented in such a different way than the contemporary Soviet aircraft.