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Old 25th February 2009, 06:41
leonventer leonventer is offline
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Re: Luftwaffe air transports to North Africa 1941-1943

Quote:
Originally Posted by MARINAVIA View Post
I'm doing some searches about the amount of materials ferried by german planes to North Africa on 1941, 1942 and 1943.
Is any total available?
Two suggestions:

1) The definitive resource on Luftwaffe operations in the Mediterranean is:
"Die deutsche Luftwaffe im Mittelmeer 1940-1945" by Karl Gundelach
(1137 pages in two softcover volumes, published by Peter D. Lang in 1981, ISBN 3-8204-6641-X)
I did a scan and found the following air transport totals for the last five months of the Tunisian campaign (i.e. Jan 1 - May 12, 1943):

Month Material(tons) Soldiers Vehicles Artillery
Jan --- 4,665 ------- 14,523 ---- 0 ----- 0
Feb --- 4,954 ------- 12,803 ---- 0 ----- 0
Mar --- 7,651 ------- 11,819 ---- 0 ----- 0
Apr --- 4,327 ------- 18,128 --- 294 --- 107
May ---- 587 --------- 292 ----- 5 ------ 0

Total - 22,184 ------ 57,565 --- 299 --- 107

By comparison, sea transport accounted for 102,148 tons, 33,977 soldiers, 150 tanks, 4,301 vehicles and 416 artillery pieces during the same period.

Unfortunately, there are no similar tables for 1941 or 1942.


2) Another decent resource is:
"German Air Force Airlift Operations" by Fritz Morzik
(417 pages, hardcover, published by Arno Press in 1961.
Also available online as study #167 at http://afhra.maxwell.af.mil/numbered_studies/studies4.asp)
This volume contains a 28-page overview of airlift operations in the Med, including some daily transport totals.


Hope that helps,
Leon Venter
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