[Andreas Brekken]

Hi.

I also use the original documents from the archives, no authors as go-betweens.

I just wanted to relay these numbers as they are what the Luftwaffe statistical department themselves used. And before anyone suggests these are doctored numbers.. these were not numbers that were supposed to be exposed to the public, but the Luftwaffe's own book-keeping...

As one of the posters mentioned the Gefechtsverbände, and Felddivisionen. In the grand total number which is mentioned by me, these are included.

I relay these also here for those interested:

Feldtruppen:
KIA: 12296 (373)
WIA: 38246 (836)
MIA: 7805 (172)
POW: 420 (not readable, but under 10, single digit only)


Fallschirmtruppen:
KIA: 20718 (706)
WIA: 54911 (1175)
MIA: 42928 (886)
POW: 2121 (66)



Before we start analyzing the numbers too much, remember that the numbers reported by authors, usually rounded to even thousand also must be analyzed. If You look at casualties, where do you stop? I know that some authors would combine all above numbers and say that the Luftwaffe in grand total lost:

KIA: 112493 (of these 8996 are officers)
WIA: 212701 (of these 9??? are officers document damaged)
MIA: 152934 (of these 7643 are officers)
POW: 8995 (of these 904 are officers)

= 487123 (some 20000 of those would hold officer rank)

In a book this would then be published as such: The Luftwaffe lost 487000 people in combat from 1.9.1939 until 10.01.1945.

This would in fact be a number much larger than the actual headcount.

Why?

Well, the number of people counted as wounded is not a per person count, but a per incident count. So.. a person wearing some of the higher valor Verwundetenabzeichen (Silver is for 3 or 4 times wounded, Gold for 5 or over), would count 3 - 5 or even more in the WIA count above.

The bookkeeping was quite tedious as an excerpts from the Ergänzungen and Berichtigungen for a report date would show. As soon as a person was reported as killed in action rather than missing, this was corrected, as soon as a person reported wounded was reported as unhurt this count was also updated. Corrections to the totals in this headcount was posted the 2nd of every month. For example, on October 2nd 1943, a correction to the number of personnel listed for as far back as July 1940 was entered (2(1) added to the total of KIA's for this month, 2(1) deducted from the total of MIA's for this month, for those interested, this was an Oblt from KG 3 and an Uffz from LG 1 declared dead by the Luftwaffe Personalamt). The count for several months in '41, '42 and '43 were also of course updated.

So - in my opinion and until further documentation appear, we will have to rely on the above mentioned 'grand totals'. BTW - this count also includes Hiwi's, Luftwaffe helferinnen and Blitzmädel, some of the personnel categories that one probably would not count as a battle casualty in it's strictest form.

In my opinion, the real number of casualties in the Luftwaffe flying units should be counted as the number of KIA's + the number of MIA's (well, those still listed as MIA today not in the scrolls of the Legion Etrangere that is.....)

Regards,
Andreas