[Jon]

I am reading "The RAF Regiment at War" at present, all about obviously the ground based regiment and their roles, mainly that of airfield defence against land and air attack.

Not only does the book mention several losses of ME262's to light AA fire at RAF airfields but also claims that on the day of Bodenplatte 355 Luftwaffe aircraft attacked 11 RAF airfields. The RAF regiment fired 7500 rounds of 40mm ( Bofors ) and 5000 rounds of .303 and brought down 46 Luftwaffe aircraft !

Can anyone confirm these losses ?

This to me sounds like superb shooting, i assume the 40mm Bofors shell by 1945 were all proximity but how close did the shell need to be and what sort of damage could a shell cause to an aircraft such as say the FW190 without actually a direct hit ?

Was the ME262 especially vulnerable to ground fire, i would imagine even a single rifle bullet in one of the engines would be a problem ?