Hooton's Luftwaffe Loss Totals - request for clarification

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Well sheer genius obviously played a part, but I think (from memory) that once the ADI(K)s were finally declassified in the UK I checked out the AIR 40 paper index at the (then) PRO. Online, it's easy enough to find e.g. via a search in AIR40 using the keyword "prisoner." Once you get a hit, use the "browse from here" button. With AIR40/2423 the details given are that the file covers July–August 1945 and has the "scope and content: 343-381." From that you can infer that it contains No. 1945/351.

BTW, as far as I know there is no English translation of Stab KG 77's diary apart from the one I made of the 1944 entries, so I never felt I'd wasted my time on it. I needed it for a book I was co-writing and I got a result I could trust (or at least know the many limitations of).

Nick, thank you for describing the logic of the search. Among the interrogation reports, AIR 40/2422 to AIR 40/2426 cover the immediate post-war period and seem to be candidates for possible sources of loss data. Does the paper index list the titles of the reports contained in the files, unlike the online catalogue?

Now I understand the point about the war diary!

Originally Posted by AndreasB

Didn't receive a PM from you I'm afraid.

All the best

Andreas

I must apologise to you and Andreas Brekken, I thought you were one and the same person. The different user names didn't register!

Here's all the loss data extracted from the ADI(K) report mentioned above:
br All 44 br Dec 44 br Jan 45 br Feb 45
Day Fighters br 2291 br 315 br 152 br 30
Night Fighters br 664 br 94 br 47 br 47
Attacks on Airfields br 2110 br 142 br 87 br no data
Western Front Day br 2996 br 675 br 427 br 168
Western Front Night br 1074 br 160 br 50 br 21
Luftflotte 4 br 1055 br 82 br 103 br 62
Luftflotte 6 br 889 br 26 br 229 br 376
Luftflotte 1 br 460 br 23 br 4 br 12
Norway br 68 br 4 br 12 br 29
Finland br 153 br 5 br 0 br 0
Denmark br 1 br 5 br 1 br 0
Italy br 966 br 7 br 3 br 5
Total br 12727 br 1538 br 1115 br no data
Without ground attacks br 10617 br 1396 br 1028 br 750
Total East br 2557 br 136 br 336 br 450
Total West br 8060 br 1260 br 692 br 300

Paul Thompson