German Claims in Poland 1939

[Marius]

Hi Andreas,
I saw in our Bundesarchiv anything you can find concerning the Luftwaffe in Poland 1939. Also the original loss lists of OKL (not the microfilms). You are right because many things are not visible on the microfilms.

But you are wrong in one important case. The OKL loss lists for September 1939 are not complete concerning the damaged German aircraft above 10%! I know it because I have analyzed and compared all documents I needed for my research. So in fact Skalski could have damaged a Bf 110 or even both and you will not find such an information there (but despite of this read my comment below concerning the Fl.Div.1 document). For example: on 9.9. I./ZG 76 fought against Polish fighters of 152 and 112 eskadra in the Lublin & Kielce regions. 3 Bf 110 were damaged (20,30 & 40%). In the OKL loss list you can find only the aircraft piloted by Lt. Lent who lost orientation and forcelanded near Kamienna (with a 90% loss of the Messerschmitt).

I do not state that on 2.9. pilots of III/4 did not damage some Bf 110 of I./ZG 1. This is possible. But if they did the damage was surely not considerable. The daily aircraft report of Fliegerdivision 1 at 16.00 hours (very important document because the war diary of I./ZG 1 was probaly lost) shows us only 1 Bf 110 less (the aircraft of the Gruppenkommandeur). The war diary of I./ZG 1 would explain more details of the possible damages (as shown above for I./ZG 76). But according to the Fliegerdivision 1 document you can exclude any other loss or force landing by I./ZG 1 - and this is decisive!
The war diary/loss list of Fliegerdivision 1 is reporting about further one aircrew slightly wounded. This shows us a damage (but surely not considerable) of another Bf 110.

A force landed aircraft on enemy territory would be reported as missing on the OKL & Fl.Div.1 document as well. Here you are right with the statement about two possibilities of 100% losses in OKL loss documents. For example there are many Ju 87`s recorded as missing and therefore as lost 100%. But in fact many returned unscathed. Nobody ever corrected it. You will find many solutions comparing OKL loss lists with other documents like war diaries of the units.

I described these topics in my book Jagdflieger. I surely will do it again in an English publication of it.

Marius