A Question RE: 8th AF raid of April 29,1944

[SES]

Hi,
May I point to some facts which could be contributing factors. The Luftwaffe Fighter Command structure was reorganized 15 SEP 1943, please see: http://www.gyges.dk/Luftwaffe%20orga...20post%205.pdf

The JK would issue a consolidated directive asigning missions to the JDs and leave the detaied direction of the battle to the JD. Earlier the individual JD - so it seems - had to fight their own battle with the forces assigned. With the introduction of the JK, fighters from adjacent JD were assigned under tactical control of the JD in who's area the penetration was occuring. Centralized control, de-centralized execution one of the hallmarks of air power employment.
In the spring of 1944 the Auge-Ohr and Fumkmess Flugmelde Dienst were combined. Up till this time day-fighter employment had been based mainly on visual and aural observations supplemented by a very limited number of radarstations (sic). Now the entire network of radarstations hitherto only used at night was involved in the production of the recognized air picture (Luftkage) please see: http://www.gyges.dk/JD%20control.htm . At this point in time the Luftwaffe Air Defence system had evolved to a state similar to that found in NATO to-day. The only difference is that in those days track reporting was manual, to-day it is computerbased.
The very successful defensive battles (day and night, the RAF lost 1000 bombers during the Battle of Berlin in the winter of 43-44) fought by the Luftwaffe up to D-Day can in my opinion be credited to the above mentioned organizational changes.
After D-Day allied ground forces overran a vital part of the Command, Control and Reporting system. The early warning time bacame shorter and shorter and with the loss of territory and hence airspace the allied time spent in defended airspace became shorter and shorter.
For some odd reason the Luftwaffe seldom if ever intercepted daylight bomber missions outside own airspace (except over the North Sea) albeit they had the ability to control fighters up to 150 miles into allied airspace. The long range radars could track targets at a distance of up to 180 miles and the Y-Linien system could track and communicate with fighters up to 150 miles away.
bregds
SES