Documentation of 2000HP Bf 109s of 1945

[Kurfürst]

UPDATE

Some information emerged that proves that JG 53 units at 1.98ata had access to C-3 fuel in April 1945.

On April 22 1945 Luftwaffenkommando West reported the following fuel stocks on airfields in Bavaria:
B-4 = 350,000 liters
C-3 = 284,000 liters
J-2 = 1,897,000 liters

On April 12, `45, Lw.Kdo. West had 42 FW 190As on-hand (Stab/JG300, II./JG300, Stab/NAGr.13), and 197 Bf 109s, (1./NAGr.13, 2./NAGr.13, 3./NAGr.13, Stab/JG53, II./JG53, III./JG53, IV./JG53, III./JG300, IV./JG300,1./NJG11).
110 of these Bf 109s were from Stab/JG53, II./JG53, III./JG53, IV./JG53.
III/JG 53 and IV/JG 53 had 73 Bf 109s with 75 fighter pilots on hand. These two Gruppe of JG 53 had been cleared for 1.98ata in 21 March 1945 by OKL, Lw.-Führüngstab, Nr. 937/45 gKdos.(op) 20.03.45.
In addition, KG 51 could muster 16 Me 262s, and 1.(F)/100 five Ar234s, and various other types (Ju88/188, Ju87, FW 189, Bf110)

[Nick Beale]

I don't really know anything about engines but I did research the data on fuel stocks that you quote from "Air War Italy 1944-45" (and the source for those and the aircraft strengths you mention was a report discovered in USAF archives by Rabe Anton). Fuel stocks are a recurring issue and there are quite a lot more figures given in the book for different dates from October 1944 onward.

To quote from earlier in the book: "The month [April 1945] began with 226 cm of B4, 125 of C3 and 341 of J2 on hand. C3 hit an all time low of 93 [cbm] on the 10th] but a rare delivery on the 14-15th brought it back up to 132 [cbm]."

Please note that as far as I know none of the fuel figures relate only to the ANR, they are the stocks available to the Kommandierender General der Deutschen Luftwaffe in Italien for all his units, German and Italian. The Germans decided who got the fuel, the Italians had no control over this (see the events of August 1944 described earlier in the book).

At the period you're talking about, the same report says the Luftwaffe units in Italy had 11 x Ju 188 D-2; 1 x Ju 88 T-3; 8 x Bf 109 G-10/R2; 1 x Ar 234 B-2; 27 x Ju 87 D-3 and D-5; 3 x Fw 190 A-8 and 4 Fw 190 A-8. (And even this can't be entirely right, since wrecks of Fw 190 F-9s were also found postwar, as well as - intact - 3 x Fi 156 C-3 and a Bf 108).

One of the other documents you quote talks about testing with "Gruppe 2/11" and engine boosts for "einzelne Aufklaerer." So maybe the Bf 109 G-10s of 2./NAG 11, based at Campoformido-Udine in Italy were involved.

[Franek Grabowski]

A slightly off-topic but was jet fuel a synthetic one?

[George Hopp]

As always, Adam, very interesting material!
All the best,
George

[ChrisMAg2]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

A slightly off-topic but was jet fuel a synthetic one?

Not in total (it's a composition of Diesel and carborator fuels), but parts (the carborator fuels) of it were.