La Luftwaffe face au Debarquement Revised Edition question

[Nick Beale]

LG 1 was in action over Normandy, so there's the Peter Taghon History as well.

In addition, II./KG 51's Me 410s were treated as a fast bomber force in IX. Fliegerkorps reports and Jan Horn's "Das Flurschadengeschwader" has material on its operations. He also has a section on Kommando Schenck's Me 262s, as does my site.

I./SKG 10 is covered by Frappé's book and was often attacking the same targets as II./KG 51.

Then there were the Mistel operations, described in Rober Forsyth's book for Classic.

Like Chris, I've thought about this as a possible topic (even if I don't have all the losses!) but the daunting bit would be working back from the known land targets to find reports from the Allied units on the ground. I've not done a lot with army material so maybe there are daily air situation reports that would make it easy to discover damage done but I suspect it would mean going to divisional level or below.

There is a passage in Pierre Clostermann's The Big Show, saying how each night the Germans: "… came over in groups of about a dozen every five minutes or so … letting their bombs go more or less anywhere. It didn’t really matter where, as the beachhead was so full of troops, ammunition dumps, convoys of lorries, concentration of tanks and planes that they could scarcely fail to score a bull every time. The nightmare went on until 3 a.m."

The anti-shipping side would easier to deal with since it's relatively straightforward to find which ships were sunk or damaged.

[Marcel van Heijkop]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

LG 1 was in action over Normandy, so there's the Peter Taghon History as well.

In addition, II./KG 51's Me 410s were treated as a fast bomber force in IX. Fliegerkorps reports and Jan Horn's "Das Flurschadengeschwader" has material on its operations. He also has a section on Kommando Schenck's Me 262s, as does my site.

I./SKG 10 is covered by Frappé's book and was often attacking the same targets as II./KG 51.

Then there were the Mistel operations, described in Rober Forsyth's book for Classic.

Like Chris, I've thought about this as a possible topic (even if I don't have all the losses!) but the daunting bit would be working back from the known land targets to find reports from the Allied units on the ground. I've not done a lot with army material so maybe there are daily air situation reports that would make it easy to discover damage done but I suspect it would mean going to divisional level or below.

There is a passage in Pierre Clostermann's The Big Show, saying how each night the Germans: "… came over in groups of about a dozen every five minutes or so … letting their bombs go more or less anywhere. It didn’t really matter where, as the beachhead was so full of troops, ammunition dumps, convoys of lorries, concentration of tanks and planes that they could scarcely fail to score a bull every time. The nightmare went on until 3 a.m."

The anti-shipping side would easier to deal with since it's relatively straightforward to find which ships were sunk or damaged.

Thanks Nick!

Best regards,

Marcel

[Laurent Rizzotti]

The best source I have about German bombers in the Normandy battle are the volumes 28 and 29 of the French magazine "Batailles aériennes", published in summer 2004. The title "Le débarquement: combats aériens". For each night, the book describes the actions of both sides. There is no detailled loss list, but examples and British reports. The two books cover only June (the first goind to the night of 12-13 June, the second covering the rest of the month).

Luftwaffe bombers losses were high over Normandy but they also deal damage and casualties.

Some examples I have in my files:
7 June 1944:
cruiser HMS Bulolo hit by bomb (3 KIA). (http://www.fold3.com/image/296569743/)
3 men of 41 RM Commando killed at Lion sur Mer (41 RM Commando War Diary, http://www.americandday.org/Document...20Diaries.html)
3 men of 12 Para Batallion killed at Le Bas de Ranville (12th Batallion War Diary, http://www.americandday.org/Document...20Diaries.html)

8 June 1944:
frigate HMS Lawford sunk (37 KIA) (http://pixaqua.typepad.com/blog/2012...-lawford-.html)

10 June 1944:
U.S. freighter Charles Morgan is damaged by bomb off UTAH Beach that kills 7 of the 64-man Army stevedore unit on board and one merchant crewman; there are no casualties among the 27-man Armed Guard. Fleet tug Kiowa (ATF-72) takes on board the survivors. Charles Morgan, however, despite strenuous efforts to save her, is ultimately declared a total loss.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...hron-1944.html
Still the battalion [3rd Batallion, 502nd US Para] could not advance. Company I, exposed on the right bank near Bridge No. 3 where men had no grass for concealment and could not dig in, was hard hit, first by enemy rifle fire and later (at 2330) by two planes that bombed and strafed its positions. The strafing in particular took a heavy toll and, when it was over, 21 men and 2 officers of the company's original 80 moved back behind Bridge No. 2.
https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/utah/utah5.htm

11 June 1944
Infantry landing craft LCI-219 is sunk by aircraft.
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/...hron-1944.html

Night of 14-15 June 1944
USS LST-280 was damaged by a torpedo while returning from the Normandy in the English Channel. For a long time it was thought that the landing ship had been torpedoed by the German U-boat U-621, but the attack was probably made by a German Ju 88 torpedo bomber (KG 77 or KG 26). The vessel was towed to the UK and was taken over by the Royal Navy after being repaired.
http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/11361.html

06-07 August 1944
The Ordnance men arrived at Avranches in the middle of the severest air bombardment Third Army had ever received. The Germans, counterattacking at Mortain in an attempt to drive a wedge between First and Third Armies, not only bombed and strafed the bridge at Avranches but plastered the neighborhood. Near midnight on 6 August, just after the 573d Ammunition Company arrived at Depot 1 in an apple orchard near Folligny, the Luftwaffe came over and destroyed about a thousand tons of ammunition. Explosions rocked the area for days. Ordnance depot and maintenance companies moving through Avranches down to the Forêt de Fougeres in Brittany passed through St. Hilaire-du-Harcouet while it was still burning and were bombed and strafed on the road. The 344th Depot Company had nine men killed and eighteen wounded.
https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/...ChapterXV.html
http://www.glenville.edu/docs/vet_le...ti_reunion.pdf