Operation Bodenplatte (the real story?)

[Franek Grabowski]

Nick
Yes, that is the point. Another myth is numbers of Allied fighters over Germany. A total of fighter escort for a raid is impressive, but escorts were staged, so at one moment there were much fewer of them, actually. Still, in German accounts you have hundreds of Allied fighters attacking a single Gruppe.
Of course, there was a problem of poor training of German pilots back in 1944/45, but this was a problem arising from earlier period. Pilots send as replacement in 1944 joined Luftwaffe around 1942, so well before problems with fuel appeared. In fact, first problems appeared in 1943 over Tunisia. So the root of the problem appeared much earlier.
Franek