Documentation on squadron sized actions

[Keith Enge]

I'm puzzled about the lack of documentation on squadron sized air battles in the ETO either online or in books. What I'm looking for is the exact composition of fairly balanced battles. For example, A planes of type B escorted C model D bombers in an attack on troop concentrations at place E. They were intercepted by F model G fighters that, by ignoring losses to the escort, were able to get among the bombers and caused enough losses that the mission was aborted. I'm somewhat unconcerned about losses; kill numbers are always inflated unless scrupulously edited post-war after reconciliation with enemy reports.

I have been able to find documentation for many such actions in the Pacific theater but few in Europe. Pacific accounts have certain advantages. The actions that involved carriers are well reported; the composition of strikes is usually noted as well as the number of them that didn't make it back to the carriers. Therefore, to get the complete picture, researchers just need to find information about the other side. However, even many actions without carriers have the sort of documentation that I seek. For example, the Darwin and Henderson Field raids have good info. Other actions in the Solomons and New Guinea are equally well documented.

I realize that, in all theaters in 1944-1945, Allied air superiority was so great that I will be able to find few balanced actions in that time frame. However, that still leaves a considerable time period left. Interestingly, I have been able to find good documentation in some fringe campaigns. For example, Finland's Winter War and Continuation War has some well documented balanced actions. Similarly, some early actions in North Africa, especially involving biplanes, are well reported. Vichy air battles in defending Syria and later Morocco/Algeria against Torch have some useful battles.

Some large daylight raids over continental Europe such as the Schweinfurt and Ploesti raids have usable info but these are the exception. Most other large raids have few details about the Luftwaffe interceptors other than a guess at raw numbers.

This still leaves the Battle of Britain, the "circuses" over France, and the North African air battles between the RAF and Italians, later adding the Luftwaffe and USAAF. The massive German-Russian battles in 1942-1943 were well-known as land battles but ground support resulted in innumerable air battles too. There are lots of histories of the battles listed above but all deal mainly with big picture issues, few actions between small elements of the larger units are discussed.

One would think that memoirs of aces would be of use. However, they tend to include only the memorable actions, particularly those in which they bested the enemy while severely out-numbered. These battles are exceptional but, by definition, aren't typical. After action reports by individual squadrons would seem to have useful info too. However, these provide only a list of the participants on their side; the enemy participants are nebulous both in numbers and model. Post-war, you would think that enemy records could be used to flesh out accurate squadron histories but this doesn't seem to have been done.

What am I missing? What online sources have I overlooked? Books?

[Larry Hickey]

Keith,

German a/c and personnel losses have been documented in books on the Western Campaign and the Battle of Britain by British author Peter Cornwell in his After the Battle series. German fighter, bomber and Stuka operations during the Polish Campaign (Sept, 1939) have been well documented by Marius Emmerling, but in Polish, not English. I can't speak for the entire war period, but for the Western Campaign (May-June, 1940) and the so-called Battle of Britain (July-Oct., 1940), the problem has been the lack of comprehensive source material on the German side in English for many of the unit actions. The story of the WC and BoB has not been thoroughly told from the German side because few (except for the Polish Campaign) of the Luftwaffe unit diaries (KTBs) and mission records for that period have survived. A large amount of information still exists but it is fragmented and has to be assembled from a lot of different sources, much of which are not yet available in English. That is what the Eagles over Europe (EOE) Project (see permanent post at the top of this Luftwaffe board) is all about. Through many sources, a large number of translators, researchers and experts (at least 50) are pulling all this information on the daily air actions for 1939-40 together, and recreating in great detail what took place on both sides each day. The records will never be complete for all air actions--too much was lost or destroyed in the war, but the resolution of detail as to what happened is being greatly improved upon by the researchers affiliated with this project. Great things are happening but it takes time and a lot of resource dedication by many people to make this happen. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, in his monumental series, Dr. Jochen Prien and his team of researchers has done excellent summaries in German of day fighter operations in all theaters for the period 1939-43, and are working forward from there. Prien and his team have also done detailed books on JG3, 27, 53 and 77, some volumes of which are available in English. Erik Mombeec and Jean-Louis Roba have done two volumes on the history of JG2, at least the first of which is available in English. Donald L. Caldwell has done several detailed books on the operations of JG26, and has just completed a two-volume work on the Defense of the Reich. The Bf110 participation in the two major 1940 campaigns has been nicely covered in English by John Vasco and Peter Cornwell, and Vasco has published the story of ErprGr210 during the BoB about as completely as any German air unit can probably ever be done. He's also done a very good history of ZG1 later in the war. Historical summaries of all the major German bomber and Stuka units have been recently published in English by Larry de Zeng (Henry L. de Zeng IV) and Doug Stankey (Douglas G. Stankey). Chris Goss has done two excellent books, one on German fighter and the other on bomber operations over Britain, as well as other books on maritime operations that provide a lot of first person accounts. He's also done an excellent account of one German fighter squadron, 1./JG53, and an opposing British fighter squadron during the BoB. Belgian author Peter Taghon has done a comprehensive and recent two-volume work on Lehrsgeschwader 1 in German. There are also a number of German bomber unit histories of varying quality and completeness that have been published in German over the years by various authors, including Ulf Balke's excellent history of KG2 and another earlier work on KG100. In English, Alfred Price's books on 18 August 1940 and 15 September 1940 are to be particularly recommended for coverage of both sides of the action. In French, one of the main researchers is Arnaud Gillet, who has published several volumes on the WC of 1940. So there is stuff out there, but quite a bit of it isn't accessible to non-German, French or Polish speaking readers.

Regards,

[Keith Enge]

Larry,

Thanks for your reply. It confirms much of which I have found. Too many Luftwaffe units basically acted as "fire brigades", moving from place to place "putting out fires", sometimes with other units temporarily attached. This transient lifestyle seems to have had a detrimental effect on record keeping. I have seen a few of the books that you named and will try to find others. However, the problem with squadron histories is that, while they have data for that squadron, they don't have equal access to data on their opponents on any given day. I wasn't aware of the EOE project and look forward to its findings; however, I fear that they won't emerge in the near future.

BoB histories all seem to speak in generalities like such and such squadrons went up to intercept the 30-50 incoming bombers. Not only is the number (and maybe models) of the enemy uncertain but so is the RAF side since many squadrons were under-strength at any particular time.

I noticed that none of the sources that you listed dealt with the Western Desert Campaign. Can you recommend any in this area?

Thanks again,

[John Vasco]

Originally Posted by Keith Enge

BoB histories all seem to speak in generalities like such and such squadrons went up to intercept the 30-50 incoming bombers. Not only is the number (and maybe models) of the enemy uncertain but so is the RAF side since many squadrons were under-strength at any particular time.

Go read my 210 book...

[Bruce Lander]

Hi,

for the air War in the Mediterranean:-

"Fighters Over The Desert" C.F.Shores & H.Ring
this covers the air action June 1940 - Dec 1942
( An updated and expanded version of this book is due out soon)

"Fighters Over Tunisia" by same authors + W.Hess
this covers air action over Algeria,Tunisia etc Nov 1942 - May 1943

"Malta - The Hurricane Year 1941" by C.f.Shores, B.Cull et al
"Malta - The Spitfire Year 1942" by same authors
"Air War Over Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete 1940-41" same authors
"Dust Clouds in the Middle East" by C.Shores
this covers Syria,East Africa and Iraq 1940-41
"Hurricanes Over Tobruk","Spitfires Over Sicily" "Hurricanes Over Malta", "Gladiators Over Malta", Spitfires Over Malta" all by B.Cull

"Flying Sailors At War" by B.Cull - this covers FAA actions in full 1939 -May 40.

"Fledgeling Eagles" by C.Shores & co covers the phoney War + Norway

Also the "Fighter Command War Diaries" 5 Vols by J.Foreman plus the same authors 2 volume set "1941 The Turning Point"

These all are pretty essential to study the subject

Cheers

Bruce Lander

[Keith Enge]

Bruce,

Thanks for your suggestions about Mediterranean theater sources. I haven't seen any of them before and will definitely look into them.

Keith

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Some suggestions for Western front air battles described from both sides:

From November 1940 to June 1941, Foreman's books "Battle of Britain: the forgotten months" and "1941: the turning point" (two volumes for the latter) describe with great details all air battles seen from both sides. Most actions are squadron-sized.

JG 26 history by Caldwell gives daily details about JG 26 and usually identifies the opponents of this unit, even if most is described from the German view. But you can complete it by using Allied sources to have a complete one.

For the Western campaign, Arnaud Gillet's books (in French) about French victories (3 books covering 10 May to 25 June) and RAF victories (so far, 2 books covering 10 May to 4 June) describe most air battles with details from both sides. Attempts are made to identify opponents of the Allied pilots for each claim.

Regarding late years of the war, Shores "2nd Tactical Force" series (3 books) is IMOO too much centered about air battles (opposed to the effects on the ground of strafing, bombing and so on), but will so perfectly suit you. In many cases German opponents are identified. In all cases Allied claims and losses are detailled.

The book “Air War Italy 1944-45: the Axis Air Forces from the Liberation of Rome to the Surrender”, by Nick Beale, Ferndinando d'Amico and Gabriele Valentini. ISBN 1-85310-252-0 describes all Luftwaffe and ANR activity in Italy from 1 June 1944 to the end of war, and every battle with details from both sides.
By the way Nick Beale has a website (http://www.ghostbombers.com/) where you can find description of several battles (check the sections about I/JG 2 and Jadggruppe 200 among others).

There are also books describing one precise day (examples: operation Bodenplatte, 12 May 1944, 14 October 1943, 2 March 1945) with many details.

Regarding the availability of German records, it has nothing do you with the "transient lifestyle" of most units. At the end of the war the German authorities ordered to destroy all records and this was done on a very large scale. So all German side of the actions has to be built from fragmentary or secondary sources. Even with these disadvantages 66 years of historical research are allowing now to have have access to many things.

But you will never see a book on Luftwaffe like the "First team" series in the Pacific, where for some battles the author is able to give the name of the pilot of every aircraft of both sides !!!!

To finish here is an extract of Fighters over the desert (date is 16 July 1942, the last action of the day):
"In the evening, twelve Tomahawks of 5 SAAF Squadron patrolled over the Alamein area, meeting Ju 87s escorted by nine Bf 109s of II/JG 27 and six of III/JG 53. Lt. Bidwell and 2/Lt. Kearns each claimed to have probably destroyed a Ju 87, Capt. Armstrong and 2/Lt. Smith each claiming a Bf 109 probable. Lt. Sommerville’s aircraft was badly damaged by Lt. Schroer of II Gruppe, who claimed a victory. III/JG 53 reported that one Ju 87 force-landed."
Notice that the number of Ju 87s is not given in this example

Continuing with the first actions of 17 July:
"Early on 17th twelve Spitfires of 145 Squadron provided top cover to the Hurricanes of 73 and 7 SAAF Squadrons on patrol. They were jumped at 0737 hours by eight Bf 109s of II./JG 27 on a ’Freie Jagd’, Oblt. Sinner shooting down Sgt. Rostant of 145 Squadron, who baled out with a wounded arm. At 1115 hours four Spitfires of this unit again took off to provide top cover to fighter-bombers, this time Kittyhawks, seven from 3 RAAF Squadron bombing in the Dir el Abyad area. Between Alamein and II Amyid the formation was attacked by eight Bf 109s of III/JG 53 on a ’Freie Jagd’, who claimed one Spitfire and one Kittyhawk. PO Weber of 145 baled out, but broke his arm, and Sgt. Stevens of 3 RAAF received severe damage to his aircraft."

Best regards

[Keith Enge]

Laurent Rizzotti -

I'll definitely look into your suggestion about "Fighters over the desert"; that is exactly the sort of detail that I seek. I'm in the process of looking through the ghostbombers website but feel that I'm unlikely to find many balanced actions in the 1944 time frame. Allied air power tended to have rather dominating air superiority by this time. Axis attacks thus tended to be more "guerrilla" than battles between relatively balanced forces. There are some exceptions like the Bodenplatte attacks that you mentioned (of which I was previously aware).

The ghostbombers website is interesting and does cover an often overlooked campaign. I have found it surprising that I can find more detailed descriptions of individual battles in some of the more obscure theaters rather than the better known ones. For example, I could document several battles involving Vichy aircraft over Syria and Casablanca. The Winter War and Continuation War involving Finnish forces also is a rich source for balanced battles. It seems that, since battles were more rare in these secondary theaters, what battles there were are better documented. A similar situation exists in the Aleutians. Another factor in play in these battles is that they tend to be smaller and more isolated; thus, they are probably easier to document. The complexity and uncertainty of details of battles seems to increase exponentially with the number of participants (kill claims are inflated exponentially too).

I've found that memoirs of aces are almost useless for my purposes. They tended to relate the exceptional, actions in which they prevailed against daunting odds. However, I don't want the exceptional, I want more typical battles when relatively matched forces met.

[Adam]

You might also find Andrew Arthy/Morten Jessen's works on the Fw 190 units in Africa and Sicily useful.

[Frank Olynyk]

Keith,
Fighters Over the Desert is badly out of date (not surprising for a book published in 1969). Chris Shores is in the process of updating it. Please see the thread I started Forthcoming Books From Chris Shores, in the Books Forum at http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showth...t=24718&page=3 especially my post of 15 Oct, #26.

Enjoy!

Frank.