Hello, Andrey (and Matti since I call for your comments later on).
I do believe that the system as a whole would function quite well - as long as one take the command structure and war into the picture.
As is stated by the Generalstab - the O.Qu. at Luftflotte level was delegated the responsibility for the units operating under its command.
If we look at the chain of reporting (follow the paper trail) for for example I./St.G. 2 in April 1942:
The unit consists as far as I can see of Stab I., 1., 2. and 3. Staffel.
Thus the detailed list of Ab- und zugänge would be filled out by the individual Staffeln as well as the Stab.
As I./St.G.2 was under the command of Geschwaderstab/St.G.2 at the time the list as compiled by the Gruppe would be transferred to the:
I.) Geschwaderstab St.G.2
II.) Do you know which Fliegerkorps they sorted under at the time - I am still looking...
III.) Luftflotte 4
IV.) L.E.2
The O.Qu. at Luftflotte 4 would be responsible for the transfer of detailed loss information to the Gen.Qu.
I find the loss records at GenQu level lacking for I./St.G.2 - but when you look behind the figures as you present them Andrey, I think you will be intrigued, and maybe interested in trying to complement them, rather than dismissing them.
To me, when I look at the information present, something special happens at the end of March - up until then (I think it will probably coincide with the move of the Geschwader from Stalino to Kertsch) the average time from loss to report date seems to be about a week for the unit. (Not strange considering the distance the documents - yes paper trail! - need to travel to reach the offices of the Generalquartiermeister in the Ministerium in central Berlin - the few scraps of documentation we have left stems from these offices - at operational unit level almost all is lost).
For April 1943, beginning already with one recorded loss on April 1st 1943, this time lag between loss and report date jumps up to almost two months! Loss date April 1st 1943 - report date May 27th 1943. The other two losses as recorded by the unit happened on April 23rd and 27th, the loss record they are included in at central level is dated May 24th - a time lag of one month...
But! And this is my point - even if the detailed loss records which might have been in one of the post sacks blown up in a railway attack or in a shot down transport Ju 52? - nothing seems to indicate that the Bestand- and Bewegungsmeldungen which might have taken another route suffered the same fate - from those it seems that the records reached Berlin and was incorporated in the central and more statistical overviews on which Michael Holm has been able to work.
So how do we make sense of this? In my opinion it is like laying a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing.
We know the following details:
The unit was moved to Kertsch in April 1943. How was the communication from the operational area to the command structure? Are disturbances in the communication by paper likely?
Was there any heavy fighting going on in the area at the time? My answer is yes - they had their work definitely cut out for them - I think you and others can add more detail than me with regards to this.
So to the jigsaw puzzle - what do we have:
We have the Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldung for the unit, stating the outflux of 5 aircraft - 3 combat related, 1 non combat related and one transferred to the industry (which would never be reported in the loss records at Gen.Qu.6.Abt. level)
We have the Summarische Verlustmeldung which is a statistical sheet for the losses, and we can see from it that the loss on April 1st is deemed as non-combat related - while the losses on April 23rd and April 27th are stated as being combat related.
April 1st - non combat related:
http://www.aviationhistory.no/ref_db...?lossid=132526
April 23rd - combat related:
http://www.aviationhistory.no/ref_db...?lossid=132782
April 27th - combat related:
http://www.aviationhistory.no/ref_db...?lossid=132781
So - bringing this together we seem to be one aircraft short.
And here comes my theory - the losses for I./St.G.2 between the dates of April 27th 1943 and May 26th 1943 - where there in theory should have been 12 losses reported are missing at central level due to one or more of the above mentioned factors.
The maths are:
1 missing Ju 87 D-3 loss for April 1943 - probably sustained in one of the last days of the month
13 - 5 (known losses for the dates May 26th, 28th, 29th and 31st) = 8 Ju 87 D-3 loss records missing for combat losses - probably sustained in the date period May 1st through May 25th 1943
3 Ju 87 D-3 loss records missing for non combat losses - probably sustained in the date period May 1st through May 25th 1943
1 Ju 87 D-1 loss record missing for combat losses - probably sustained in the date period May 1st through May 25th 1943
So no mystery - no propaganda - just war...
I believe Andrey - that if we look into the existing records still remaining on the Luftwaffe side - and try to correlate information from the other combatants with the same open mind - we will be able to bring the research forward - the other approach which I have seen far too much of is to dismiss information just because it does not fit some kind of hero story from one side or the other...
In this specific case it would be highly interesting to do the same exercise I just did to I./St.G.2 to the other units operating in the same area and under the same command structure. We might find that a ´mystery´ can be rather easily solved.
And if it would be possible to get any reliable data - by that I mean hard facts like crashed enemy aircraft reports with WNr or call signs or something like that - or POW records for St.G.2 personnel not listed in the records we have from the German side - that would help us shed a little more light to this.
Matti - do you have any NVM info that are not in the GenQu lists?
Regards and keep up the good work guys,
Andreas B