Lw-losses without enemy actions!

[Jim P.]

As another who has done a lot of work with the loss materials, for both sets of losses, as well as numerous casualty reports, I wholeheartedly agree with Andreas and RT's statements. Lots of combat patrols, bombing sorties, photo recon missions that were indeed 'missions against the enemy' where the enemy was not encountered. Also the machines these guys were flying were the leading edge in high performance for their time and as such were bound to have blown engines and other types of technical failures. You'd probably be surprised at the number of famous names that died in crashes versus actually being shot down in combat.

One other point - RT I think there is an 'E' entry in the Sonntige losses that seems to correspond with the H/F for the GenQu. reports. Not sure how consistently applied, or it may mean something else?