JG26's VERY late war performance...

[Don Caldwell]

Nick --

Your question as you have refined it (the relative 1945 performance of the Jagdgruppen on the Westen Front) is a very interesting one, one that can ALMOST be answered with published data. IMHO, the performance of fighter units as pure fighters (offensive or defensive) in a given theater during a given period of the war can be compared using four metrics: combat sorties, claims/sortie, losses/sortie, and the claim/loss ratio. I don't think adequate sortie data exist, but a table of claim and loss totals for the Gruppen of JG 2, JG 26, JG 27, JG 53, and III/JG 54 would be useful. Losses are tabulated in the UHs of Federl, Caldwell, Prien, Prien, and Urbanke respectively. Claims are available in the same sources for all units but JG 2. I'm sure the JG 2 claim data exist in Germany, probably with Jochen Prien's team and most likely with Winfried Bock. I know Jochen reads this forum from time to time. If someone will get me a list of 1945 JG 2 claims, I'll prepare a table comparing all of the Western Front Jagdgruppen and post it on the JG 26 website. And no, I have no preconceived idea of what the data will show.

Horrido!

Don

[O.Menu]

Note that Erik Mombeeck is publishing a JG2 history (first in French) : http://www.luftwaffe.be/publicationsmain.html

[Don Caldwell]

I hadn't thought about Erik's JG 2 work, but his website lists only Volume 1, 1934-1940, and it's "propose" -- if that means what I think it does, 1945 is quite far off. I'll e-mail Erik directly and see if he can supply a 1945 claims list.

Don