[RodM]

Hi Marius,

I think it is important to you understand that, unlike Luftwaffe records, the records of Bomber Command, being a "home-based" formation, survived the war relatively intact. While there is a lot of minutiae that has not been preserved, all of the essential records have been available to the public since they were released in 1972. These include the individual squadron "war diaries", the Bomber Group "war diaries", and the Bomber Command "War Diary". These records, combined with casualty data and aircraft production and history data, make it clear that there was no "ghost" formation as you have proposed.

I can give a reverse analogy from the other end of the war: between November 1944 and May 1945, Bomber Command crews claimed a total of 77 jet-/rocket-propelled aircraft destroyed in air combat at night, along with a further 9 probably destroyed and 9 damaged. On the face of it so many crews over such a long period couldn't all be mistaken so surely there must have been a significant number of Me262s and Me163s shot down at night, right? Wrong, surviving records do not support even one jet-/rocket-propelled aircraft being shot down at night by a heavy bomber crew, and Bomber Command Headquarters understood this at the time. Not one of the 95 claims was confirmed...

On another note that will interest you, I will post an index list of Luftgaukommando XI crash reports for 18 December 1939, as found in the US-produced index of crash reports at NARA in the US. I should state that there appears to be duplication in the list, so caveat emptor...

Cheers

Rod