[Simon Trew]

Thank you Laurent, that is very helpful and I am grateful for the response.

So, in short, you think the destroyed / damaged figures in Luftflotte 3's reports are probably generally reliable. Some badly damaged (even 70/80% and therefore 'destroyed' at first glance) planes were repaired but other less badly damaged ones (50% or less) were eventually written off. The two figures probably don't balance (I imagine more lightly damaged planes were eventually written off than very badly damaged ones were eventually repaired), but there is no obvious reason for thinking the 'official' figures crazily out of line with reality.

Thank you for the very helpful suggestion and link to the unit tables of losses and acquisitions. I had that source in my bibliography but for some reason hadn't sued it. It is a thoroughly sensible suggestion and I will go there and tabulate the relevant data.

The thing is that I still have major problems aligning the losses of KG 26 (He 111s) and losses of Ju 88s that 'belonged' to Luftflotte 3 but which were really supporting operations relating more to what was going on in Italy and the wider Mediterranean. This morning I looked at Shores et al Vol 4, plus several other sources that shed light on operations by KG 26, KG 30, KG 76 and KG 77 from January - May 1944 in the Mediterranean. Some of these units certainly were based in southern France and 'technically' under Luftflotte 3's command. But time and again, any attempt to make the Luftflotte 3 loss tables 'fit' with what is recorded of those KG's losses vs convoys and other targets just don't work - and usually by some margin.

One thing does occur to me, which is that possibly losses to units that were based in southern France, under Luftflotte 3's command, might be recorded insofar as they were losses to bombing and strafing attacks on their airfields. Of the 53 He 111s recorded as destroyed, 26 were destroyed on the ground. Maybe losses to He 111s and Ju 88s belonging to KG 26, KG 76, KG 30 and KG 77 were recorded as Luftflotte 3 losses if they were sustained at French airfields, but NOT counted if they were sustained during sorties over the Mediterranean or in support of Luftflotte 2 operations in Italy?? Presumably, in such a case, the 'losses in the air' would fall to Luftflotte 2, or maybe they might be recorded elsewhere??

Does this argument make the slightest sense? Or am I just betraying my ignorance of how things worked in the bits of Luftwaffe bureaucracy that were concerned with such things?

Best,

Simon