Nick, how refreshing with someone who gives explicit and credible
source references:
Quote:
“Having read a small sample of Ultras from the Jagdkorps II in Normandy campaign (which was refought in the recent thread) my impression was that Allied superiority manifested itself as a near-constant presence – i.e. the Luftwaffe was often lucky to get to its target (or off the ground) without running into opposition. The refrain seems to have been ’task not carried out owing to …’
It wasn’t so much 15 aircraft versus 100 but 15 versus 20 and then another 20 and then another 20 and so on.”
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Yes, that is exactly the impression I have, and the same description is repeated over and over again by German sources. What was even worse - from the German POV - was that already the first combat caused the German unit to get dispersed into twos or threes - hence the American observation which I quoted earlier: “enemy aircraft were sighted . . . mostly Me 109s and Fw 190s in twos and threes”. These twos and threes then often were left on their own, with tired pilots and aircraft running low on both ammunition and fuel - against “fresh” Allied formations of 20, 30, 40 or more fighters which bounced them from above. (An air combat often has the tendency to drift downward in altitude, so that fighters which have come out of one combat often are flying lower than newly arriving fighters.)
I was challenged by Franek to present even a single combat where we know the exact number of aircraft on both sides, where the Germans were outnumbered by ten to one (“Please give a single sample of a Staffel, 6-9 aircraft, fighting with two or three Wings or Fighter Groups, 60-90 aircraft”). I found the request strange, but since Franek wanted to see such a case, I gave him a row of even worse cases in the “Luftwaffe Aces KIA in Normandy” thread (25 German fighters versus twelve hundred US fighters and bombers, 10 German fighters versus 524 US fighters at Chartres) - only because he wondered if there ever were such cases. Cases of a Staffel, 6-9 aircraft, fighting with two or three Wings or Fighter Groups, 60-90 aircraft were not uncommon over France in the summer of 1944, but of course, the nature of precisely that kind of scenario tells us that most air combats were fought in smaller formations.
I can understand that if one limits his study to only Allied accounts on the unit level - together with a tendency to dismiss any German account on the simple grounds that it is a German account - the perspective of the huge Allied numerical superiority which you describe, Nick, is diminished.
If we go to the case which I described on page 7 in the “La-7Vs??”:
Quote:
“Let’s first listen to our friend Don Caldwell, who in his excellent “JG 26 War Diary” writes on page 292 (dealing with 27 June 1944): “134 Fw 190 and 196 Bf 109 sorties during the day, in thirty-five ordered missions. It is probable that a ‘mission’ in this context represented an effort by one Gruppe; a Gruppe mission thus contained an average of fewer than ten aircraft”.
In other words, an average of no more than nine German fighters participated in each mission on 27 June 1944.
The largest single mission performed by the Luftwaffe over France on 27 June 1944 probably was that which involved I. and II./JG 27 in the evening, with approximately 20 Bf 109s. These were attacked by the Thunderbolts of 353 FG, and then Thunderbolts of 56 FG joined in, followed by the Mustangs of 352 FG and 355 FG. It is possible that the Mustangs of 339 FG also participated in the onslaught on I. and II./JG 27’s little formation, since this fighter group claimed a victory against a German fighter in the same area and at the same time, while there are no records of other German fighter units in the vicinity by the same time. However, it doesn’t matter whether I. and II./JG 27’s little formation was battered by four or five different US fighter groups; what matters is that the Bf 109 pilots stood no chance and lost nine Bf 109s (the Americans claimed 14 victories) while they only managed to shoot down two US fighters. (See Clark, book, p. 94, and CD for 27 June 1944.)”
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. . . only the surviving German pilots would for sure be able to describe the actual numerical odds they were up against. To the US pilots of each involved fighter group or fighter squadron, it could have appeared as “us 50 (or 15 to 18 if the individual squadron was reporting, or even 4 if the individual flight was the perspective) against 10 or 20 Germans (or even 30 - 40, due to fighter pilots’ tendency to exaggerate the number of enemy aircraft which they engage)”.
Many accounts and combat reports start with “together with my flight, I attacked. . .” Often, the pilots who gave the combat report didn’t mention the presence of other friendly fighters, because that wasn’t entirely relevant. And often they simply were not aware of the fact that another fighter group had bounced these German planes ten minutes previously, and ten minutes afterward, a third fighter group would bounce those unfortunate Germans one more time - followed maybe by a fourth fighter group, unbeknown to the other three, another ten minutes later.
Yes, Nick, this is the reality of the air war over Normandy, as you correctly mention was noted in German radio messages intercepted by Ultras. As always, it is necessary to study reports from both sides, and treat both sides equally seriously, in order to arrive at a picture which is as close as possible to the reality.
BTW, I am reading your “Ghost Bombers”, which is a great piece of research and text! I am deeply impressed! Before that one, I wouldn’t have believed that it was possible to find such a wealth of information on a Nachtschlachtgruppe in Italy (of all places!) in 1944 - 1945 (of all years!). It is a great read, and your illustrations are just marvellous! Sometimes it gets so personal that it feels like a biography: There is a photo of the German pilot who was shot down, a photo of the last page in his logbook (ending with a comment by a superior, noting that he was KIA), then a photo of the British pilot who shot him down, and finally a photo of the last page in his logbook (with an entry of the shootdown), and maybe also a copy of the corresponding page in that guys’ personal diary - plus colour profiles of both involved aircraft! Breathtaking! Where did you find all that material? I also noticed that there are some “the battlefield then and now” photos. Have you been to those places and taken those photos?
Oops, I realise that this should fit better in the review section, so I’ll post it there too.
All best,
Christer Bergström
http://www.graf-grislawski.elknet.pl/index.htm
http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/bc-rs/
http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/...-ace/index.htm