KG1-operations vs. "Bagration" in June '44

[yogybär]

I read some fragments about kind of close support missions of KG1-He177 versus soviet tanks, and huge losses which occured during these. But www.ww2.dk doesn't show big losses in June/July '44.

What details / sources are known for this interesting topic?

[Nick Beale]

The source of this story might be memories of a pilot called Balasko which he related to Alfred Price and were used in the old Profile Publications booklet on the He 177.

My limited experience suggests that when veterans speak of "heavy losses", "several accidents" etc., this often means that they have vivid memories of one particular incident (e.g. when a close friend was killed in those circumstances).

Another one is how Allied fighters were over their aerodromes "the whole time" - and then you see photos of aircraft (e.g. JV 44) standing in a row in broad daylight with no attempt at concealment.

[Brian Bines]

In the Griehl/Dressel book on the He177 for the period March to August 1944 there are some 36 177 losses for KG 1 most down to technical reasons. NVM's for the same period show some 20 aircraft losses with crew causalties, of these 3 appear to be on operational flights and due to enemy action. Unless the records are incomplete I would have thought there would have been many more crew losses if a large number of He 177's had been shot down from low level attacking tanks

[yogybär]

Seems the "disaster" is not to be found in the few facts we have...

[Jens]

I can't image that He-177 flew many sorties in 1944, since they need very much fuel. IIRC one Geschwader needed 540 t for one sortie of all aircrafts.