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Re: US Strategic Bombing Survey No59 - a questionable statement about 1-seat fighters production
Hello Laurent,
I agree with you.
I think the "disappeared" can be divided into 4 main groups:
1) Planes under repair in Industrie or on the way to it lost for various reasons (including during the retreat) - were not included in GQM returns, and therefore the USSBS authors didn't find the info about that losses.
2) New planes produced and accepted by Luftwaffe, but didn't reach the units - due to air raids and for other reasons.
3) Losses within units not mentioned in GQM returns. As far as I noticed, the omissions happened primarily with losses on the ground, but sometimes in other cases up to combat sorties. I think since 1944 it was a more or less noticeable share, but even before that there were cases of quite a lot of missed (you rightly mentioned Stalingrad and Tunisia)
4) Planes received for repair in Industrie, but used (cannibalized) for the repair of other planes or even partially for the production of new planes.
Maybe I missed something and not sure that this list would completely cover the shortfall.
Best regards,
Andrey
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