Hooton's Luftwaffe Loss Totals - request for clarification

[AndreasB]

Hope it wasn't just a re-typed version of this one?

All the best

Andreas

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by AndreasB

Hope it wasn't just a re-typed version of this one?

All the best

Andreas

Hello Andreas,

Hopefully not, but let's wait for Tony Jones to clear that up.
Meanwhile here is some data from AHB translation VII/152, in Air 20/7710: Luftwaffe Losses - Eastern Front (Sep/Dec 1943)

Month br Enemy Destr br Enemy Dam br Operations Destr br Operations Dam br Non-operational Dest br Non-operational Dam
September br 232 br 92 br 82 br 98 br 39 br 56
October br 205 br 106 br 73 br 105 br 20 br 52
November br 107 br 57 br 42 br 59 br 38 br 52
December br 110 br 46 br 23 br 36 br 42 br 54
4 Month sum br 654 br 301 br 220 br 298 br 139 br 214

Regards,

Paul Thompson

[Paul Thompson]

There's something interesting and quite unexpected in the Air translations at Kew. Since I believe it may be quite significant, I've provided a detailed explanation below:

The files in question are Air 20/7709, 20/7710 and 20/7711. These are volumes X through XII of the RAF translations of captured enemy documents. What they contain are not translations of German documents, but rather summaries of Luftwaffe losses, based on the 6th Abteilung loss lists. The surprising thing is, even though the loss lists for 1944 are lost, these tables, produced by the AHB in 1954 and 55, contain tables for 1944.
The reports are titled "Air Historical Branch Translation No. VII," numbers 133-136, 138, 139, 145-152 and 157.

A sample summary of monthly losses, for the end of 1943 on the Eastern front, is in my post above. The level of detail in the table strongly suggests that the AHB had the 1944 loss lists, or some equivalent, available to them. Any ideas as to what their primary source might have been?

The loss tables cover the following periods and fronts:

Western Front - September 1943 through November 1944, except August 1944
Defence of the Reich - June 1943 through June 1944
Norway (Luftflotte 5 West - marked this way in the source) - September through December 1943 and then July through November 1944
Mediterranean - September through December 1943 and then July through November 1944
Eastern Front - September through December 1943 only

Is a more complete set of these tables available in some other archive?

Paul Thompson