Luftflotte 4 losses Apr.-Jun.1943: a comparison of the different data

[Andrey Kuznetsov]

Hello Andreas,

Originally Posted by Andreas Brekken

Hello, Andrey
What I have seen (I have not used a lot of time on this kind of comparison) is that one has to take into account that the cut-off dates may differ between the Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldungen and what you suspect to be the losses counted towards the same period.

I found that this accounted for several of the discrepancies I found.

No doubt, some June losses maybe counted in July but hardly to believe that 3-months timeframe for entire Luftflotte 4 can give the difference 66% for that reason. Let’s take into consideration that some March losses are counted in April at once. For Luftflotte 4 March was the hot month too (support of Manstein’s counteroffensive, Kuban and so on).

Specific examples (two are easy to check due to small number of losses, and one hardly explainable):

4.(F)/Nacht: losses 21.Apr.43 (100%, Absturz bei Landung - it maybe result of the battle damages or maybe flying accident) and 18.Jun.43 (100%, MIA, really shot down by AA train) = 2
Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldungen:
Apr.: 4 o.F.; May: (2 Überholung); Jun.: 1 d.F.
Difference is 5-2=3

2.(F)/100: losses 27.May (35%, fighter attack); 11.Jun. (100%, MIA); 28.Jun. (100%, MIA) = 3
Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldungen:
Apr.: 0; May: 1 d.F. and 1 o.F. [35% required the repair outside the unit here? But o.F. loss is absent anyway]; Jun.: 2 d.F. (correct)

I./StG2 (one of egregious cases):
April losses: 3 - 100%
Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldungen: 3 d.F.+1 o.F. (+1 Überholung). Difference is 4-3=1
May losses: 1 - 100%, 1 - 80%, 1 - 30%, 2 - 20% (and at least 1 < 10%)
Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldungen: 14 d.F.+3 o.F. Difference is 15 (or 12, if we’ll count 30% and 20% as required the repair outside the unit too) (!!!)
June losses: 1 - 100%, 1 - 40% (and at least 2 < 10%)
Bestand- und Bewegungsmeldungen: 2 d.F.+2 o.F. (+2 Überholung). Difference is 4-2=2
Total difference is 1+15+2=18 !

I can post the details if needed.

Originally Posted by Andreas Brekken

Hello, Andrey
Will gladly help if I can - interesting project.

Thank you in advance!
It isn’t a project itself but one of calculations needed for the Kuban air battles analysis. I’ll accept any result but it must be reasoned.

Best regards,
Andrey