Documentation on squadron sized actions

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lander

Hi,

for the air War in the Mediterranean:-
…

Bruce Lander

And maybe "Air War Italy 1944–45" by Beale, D'Amico & Valentini" (Airlife, 1996)? Most of the daylight actions in the period we covered were at squadron-level or below and we were very keen to identify the participants on either side.

For Northwest Europe, Martin Middlebrook's "The Schweinfurt-Regensburg Mission" would fit the bill as would Alfred Price and Jeffrey Ethell's "Target Berlin: Mission 250: 6 March 1944."

[Don Caldwell]

Hi Keith --

The members of this board have taken a lot of time and trouble in the past few days to educate you, and I hope that you're no longer "puzzled at the lack of documentation on squadron sized air battles in the ETO." If I may be permitted to summarize:

1. The larger the battle, the more difficult it is to match up opponents even at the Group/Gruppe level, much less at the individual victor/victim level.

2. Most Luftwaffe records were destroyed, either at the unit level on orders from Berlin as V-E Day approached, or in a large 8th Air Force raid on Luftwaffe headquarters in Berlin on 3 Feb 45.

AFAIK, books in English have covered eight specific dates in the day war over the Reich in detail, but perhaps not in the detail that you want. Keep in mind that no pilot knows who he's fighting or even the unit of his opponent. These match-ups have to be inferred by researchers using the data available from both sides. In my case I look for matches in time, location, and circumstances, and the absence of any contradictory data. Only if all four conditions are met am I ready to declare a match with confidence. One reason I picked JG 26 to study in detail is that there were more data available in the BA-MA for that Geschwader than any other. Also, its battles in 1941-42, the period of its greatest successes, were small in scale and relatively easy to sort out, and, when I started, a number of veterans were accessible and eager to talk.

My new book "Day Fighters in Defense of the Reich" has been held up at the printer but is now scheduled for November release. It will not fill your specific needs, although it does have a few combat matchups, but will help illustrate the difficulty of filling those needs and clear up a few things for you -- e.g., most Defense of the Reich units operated from well-established bases, were fully staffed, and I'm sure kept good records -- they were just forced to destroy them. The "Fire Brigade" concept was valid for certain units at certain times, but can't be blamed for the data deficit. What the book does contain in its 480 pages is a brief description of every battle between the Reich defense forces (broadly defined) and the US 8th and 15th Air Forces. There are tables containing statistics for every Gruppe involved -- but these don't always contain such basic information as the numbers of fighters scrambled by each Gruppe, because the war diaries containing that information no longer exist. There are also maps for 32 battles showing the point of contact of each airborne Jagdgruppe with the bomber stream, and more info. Look for the book (published by Frontline). It'll give you the big picture of the day battles over the Reich in greater detail than ever before and point you to specific battles, if you want to do your own research in the archives -- it'll help if you can afford to travel and can read German.

Horrido!

Don Caldwell

[drgondog]

Hey Don - I will want to buy a copy from you. Also, I finally went to the darkside and signed with Schiffer on mine. I hope some of my stuff proved useful for you.

Warm Regards,

Bill

[Don Caldwell]

Hi Bill --

You're on my e-mail list to notify as soon as I have books. Unfortunately, I don't even know who the US distributor will be. I've made good but limited use of your 355FG info in this book, and would use more of it in one of the two followup books I have in mind. I want to use the same format as my previous two books, and don't know if any UK publisher will want it, leaving me with Schiffer. Please keep me updated on your experiences with them.

-- Don

[Keith Enge]

Thanks again everyone for the help. It has been and will be useful to flesh out my coverage of the Mediterranean theater, both Western Desert and post-armistice.

Keith