Luftwaffe air transports to North Africa 1941-1943
 

Hello Gentlemen,

this is my first mail here. I knew about the Forum by a German member of an other Forum and I have to admit my first interest is about navy (MARINAVIA was the name of the Italian Naval Auxiliary Air Force between 1923 ans 1943).

I'm doing some searches about the amount of materials ferried by german planes to North Africa on 1941, 1942 and 1943.
Is any total available?

let me know if you are interested about the Italian naval air brach. It was formed by floatplanes and flying boats and was under the Italian Navy operative control, even if the planes and the personnell (except for observes) were Regia Aeronautica's (The Italian Air Force until 1946).

Greetings

EC

Re: Luftwaffe air transports to North Africa 1941-1943
 

I would suggest Transporter, volume One, by Martin Pegg. See the Ian Allen web site for details. I do not have the book.




Usual disclaimer,
Ed

Re: Luftwaffe air transports to North Africa 1941-1943
 

Two suggestions:

1) The definitive resource on Luftwaffe operations in the Mediterranean is:

"Die deutsche Luftwaffe im Mittelmeer 1940-1945" by Karl Gundelach
(1137 pages in two softcover volumes, published by Peter D. Lang in 1981, ISBN 3-8204-6641-X)

I did a scan and found the following air transport totals for the last five months of the Tunisian campaign (i.e. Jan 1 - May 12, 1943):

Month Material(tons) Soldiers Vehicles Artillery
Jan --- 4,665 ------- 14,523 ---- 0 ----- 0
Feb --- 4,954 ------- 12,803 ---- 0 ----- 0
Mar --- 7,651 ------- 11,819 ---- 0 ----- 0
Apr --- 4,327 ------- 18,128 --- 294 --- 107
May ---- 587 --------- 292 ----- 5 ------ 0

Total - 22,184 ------ 57,565 --- 299 --- 107

By comparison, sea transport accounted for 102,148 tons, 33,977 soldiers, 150 tanks, 4,301 vehicles and 416 artillery pieces during the same period.

Unfortunately, there are no similar tables for 1941 or 1942.


2) Another decent resource is:

"German Air Force Airlift Operations" by Fritz Morzik
(417 pages, hardcover, published by Arno Press in 1961.
Also available online as study #167 at http://afhra.maxwell.af.mil/numbered_studies/studies4.asp)

This volume contains a 28-page overview of airlift operations in the Med, including some daily transport totals.


Hope that helps,
Leon Venter

Re: Luftwaffe air transports to North Africa 1941-1943
 

Thank you very much guys for these interesting and useful answers.

Bye

EC

Re: Luftwaffe air transports to North Africa 1941-1943
 

Try this link:

http://www.afhra.af.mil/studies/numb...ies151-200.asp

Also note that while volume was considerably smaller than naval supply, the aerial supply was focussed on critical items at critical times, without which the continuation the North African campaign would have been imperilled. E.g. fuel during Operation CRUSADER.

All the best

Andreas