[Dan History]

Oh, the wonders of the Internet! It makes it possible to read a historian writing from Russia, the modern-day equivalent of Nazi Germany, calling an official Russian military historian "my friend and an excellent historian". This on day 675 of Russia's invasion of the entirety of Ukraine.

For those with a knowledge of spoken Russian, here is a link to a video of Mr. Morozov, the "excellent" official historian, now retired from direct employment by the Russian Defence Ministry, giving a talk on the subject of "the components of America's missile defence: prospects and capabilities" (Об элементах американской ПРО: перспективы и возможности.) March 15, 2022. youtube.com/watch?v=PUFXtGLGuUk

This chat took place three weeks into Russia's invasion, long before American Patriots and other NATO air defence systems were delivered to Ukraine, so Mr. Morozov was anticipating events. He was not quite anticipating just how many Russian missiles would be shot down by these systems, but then Russia's entire invasion has been beset by a rather difficult relationship with objective reality.

Enough of this Russian nonsense and bilious hatred of Ukraine and the West, back to the subject at hand.

A rather more useful wonder of the modern Web is the accessibility of primary sources. A three-volume series of documents covering the Luftwaffe's strength and losses from September 1943 through to the end of October 1944 is now available for download. I used these documents in my study, and they contain much more information than just summary loss data, as the series title would suggest. See the links below:

Materialverluste.- Flugzeuge.- Einsatz alle Fronten.- Monatsmeldungen. Bd. 1. Sept. - Dez. 1943. RL 2-III/944.
invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/00025cbd-a067-430c-b54a-8973c83a1a89/

Bd. 2. Jan. - Mai 1944. RL 2-III/945
invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/18a7407a-8409-4cb4-8088-d94a6d7a0ad7/

Bd. 3. Juni - Okt. 1944. RL 2-III/946
invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/02d0744e-fc07-4b39-b941-65774ee10af9/

These document were also used by Olaf Groehler in an old East German article, which Mr. Kuznetsov recently mentioned on this forum. With the original documents to hand, the article is of little interest, but some of the data from it was presented in summary form by Don Caldwell on his website dedicated to Jagdgeschwader 26, see "Luftwaffe Aircraft Losses By Theatre September 1943 - October 1944"
don-caldwell.we.bs/jg26/thtrlosses.htm


Lynn, you might find another document to be particularly useful. A breakdown of Luftwaffe flight hours by type and sub-type for the January to September 1944 time-frame:
Flugzeuge: Flugzeugbestand, Flugbetrieb.- Betriebsmeldungen und Statistiken. Jan. - Sept. 1944. RL 2-III/974. invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/dcaf1a27-6209-4d2a-92a8-54eae6ea38ea/


The Koller statistics of Luftwaffe sorties in 1944 and early 1945, which Mr. Kuznetsov referred to above, have not yet been digitised, but will be available in the future at the following link:
Einsatz fliegende Verbände Deutschland, Feindeinflüge Reichsgebiet, alle Fronten.- Erfolge, Verluste personell und materiell.- Zahlenmäßige statistische Übersichten - Handakte Major Büchs. Dez. 1944 - Febr. 1945, gesamt 1944. RL 2-III/1198.
invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/edad4f51-a972-46d6-a934-3844cbc2e5e9/

It would be most interesting to see such information on Luftwaffe sorties for other periods of the war, but I have never encountered it, with the exception of small fragments. Have other forum members seen it? Of course, Mr. Kuznetsov will not acknowledge that the Luftwaffe flew more sorties in the East than elsewhere in 1944-45 because it was largely suppressed by Allied air power in the West and Mediterranean. This general pattern was established significantly earlier than 1944, of course. We all know why the Luftwaffe stopped almost all daylight bomber sorties over Britain in 1940.

By now, Russia's inability to acknowledge, let alone honestly analyse, much of the history of the Second World War surprises nobody. Much more interesting is how people in the free world understand the subject. A great deal of rather low-quality literature has been published emphasising the supposed inefficiency and even ineffectiveness of Allied air power during the war, particularly strategic bombing. A sober analysis tells a very different story, which is something I will soon write about, provided a break from other work will be forthcoming!