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  #1  
Old 5th May 2019, 17:00
RolandF RolandF is offline
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1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

On March 27th 1943 JGr West had to suffer a terrible air attack which destroyed 18 Fw 190, 2 Do 217, 4 Ar 96, 3 Bf 108 completely and damaged many more other Luftwaffe planes.
Does anybody have more info to offer about this raid and more detail of the destroyed inventory? JGr West must have diasappeared almost completely as operational unit. Thanks in advance...

Regards
RolandF
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  #2  
Old 5th May 2019, 22:27
Laurent Rizzotti Laurent Rizzotti is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

The attack and list of aircraft losses (and possibly aircrew losses) is described in an article in the French Magazine Avions. I have it, but I just moved in a new house and it is in a box... somewhere

By the way; you said 1944 in the title and 1943 in the text. The correct date is 1944, and it was one of several Luftwaffe airfields attacked that day in SW France.
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Old 6th May 2019, 13:11
focusfocus focusfocus is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

Hi Laurent

Are you referring to "AVIONS N°88"?

RolandF

No mention of losses in Biaritz/Parme (located in the city),but the city,ravaged.
The only losses mentioned are those of PAU(JG.101),essentially Ar.68,Ar.96,D.520,Potez 63...no FW.190.
Other losses in Cazeau,Tours (JG.101)

michel
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Old 7th May 2019, 18:42
RolandF RolandF is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

1944 is correct, of course. Sorry for the typo. Was it a coordinated attack on fighter airfields, especially on units providing new young pilots?
Tia

RolandF
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Old 7th May 2019, 21:11
Rottler Rottler is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

Hello Roland,

it was the mission 282 of the Eighth Air Force. About 700 bombers of all three Bomb Divisions attacked airfields in France. Escort was provided by 960 Eighth and Ninth Air Force fighters.
The German ground losses included 96 destroyed and 44 damaged aircraft:
Cazaux (amongst others FlÜG 1 and ZG 1) 25 destroyed, 9 damaged
Chartres (JG 105) 6 destroyed, 1 damaged
Tours (Erg./SKG 10) 6 destroyed, 7 damaged
St. Jean (III./KG 40) 2 destroyed, 2 damaged
Merignac (II./KG 40) 10 destroyed, 1 damaged
Pau (JG 101) 13 destroyed, 11 damaged
Les Landes Bussac and Biarritz (JGr West) 34 destroyed, 13 damaged.

Source: JFV Vol. 13/III

Regards
Leo
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Old 8th May 2019, 22:09
RolandF RolandF is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

Rather a big blow for Lw airfields in Southern France. Thx for your info. Does JFV 13/III offer loss lists of the damaged Luftwaffe planes?

Regards
Roland F

Last edited by RolandF; 10th May 2019 at 18:25.
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Old 9th May 2019, 01:07
Rottler Rottler is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

Hello RolandF,

JFV 13/III covers the service of the Luftwaffe dayfighter units in the West from January to September 1944, but no loss lists. The summaries of each unit’s service and the tables with claims and losses of 1944 are not yet published.

Regards
Leo
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Old 10th May 2019, 01:29
Laurent Rizzotti Laurent Rizzotti is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

Michel, yes I was referring to Avions n°88 and I just found it while unpacking in my new home, and as you say it has no aircraft list in Biarritz, but two KIA for JGr 101 here.

I was surprised... until I found the probable explanation: the source for the article series in Avions for losses of Luftwaffe "rear area units" is probably extracted from the files dedicated to "school units", that were different from the files for "front units". The former still exist up to September 1944, while the latter are missing for most of 1944. And I think that in March 1944, JGr West, like JGr Süd in SE France, was reporting as a frontline unit rather than as a school unit, and so his losses are not listed in the source used for the article in Avions.

I check the database for Luftwaffe summary losses, and it has for this date:
J.Gr.West: 40 aircraft lost (34 on the ground), 15 aircraft damaged (13 on the ground)
2 aircrat missing due to enemy action (reported on 2 April)
3 aircraft destroyed by gunfire from enemy aircraft during operational flight, observed by enemy (reported on 2 April)
1 aircraft destroyed by gunfire from enemy aircraft during operational flight, not observed by enemy (reported on 2 April)
31 aircraft destroyed on the ground by enemy bombs (30 reported on 31 March, 1 reported on 17 April)
3 aircraft destroyed on the ground by gunfire from enemy aircraft (reported on 2 April)
2 aircrat damaged without enemy action on non-operational flight (reported on 2 April)
12 aircraft damaged on the ground by enemy bombs (10 reported on 31 March, 2 reported on 1 April)
1 aircraft damaged on the ground by gunfire from enemy aircraft (reported on 2 April)

II./K.G.40:
3 aircraft destroyed on the ground by enemy bombs (reported on 30 March)
5 aircraft damaged on the ground by enemy bombs (reported on 30 March)

III./K.G.40:
2 aircraft destroyed on the ground by enemy bombs (reported on 30 March)
1 aircraft damaged on the ground by enemy bombs (reported on 30 March)

Erg.St./S.K.G.10
5 aircraft destroyed on the ground by enemy bombs (4 reported on 2 April, 1 reported on 3 April)
3 aircraft damaged on the ground by enemy bombs (reported on 2 April)

The figures for JGr West is the same than the one provided by Leo (extracted from JFV 13/III). The losses for KG 40 and Erg.St./S.K.G.10 are less important in the database than in JFV, but see below for a possible explanation.

Concerning the airfields covered by the article in Avions n°88:
Cazaux (amongst others FlÜG 1 and ZG 1) 25 destroyed, 9 damaged. Among units covered in the article in Avions, 3 reported losses at Cazaux:
- Erpr.St.d.Lw Rechlin 5 destroyed (1 Ju 88, 1 Do 217, 1 Fw 190, 1 He 111, 1 Fi 156) and 3 damaged(1 Ju 88, 1 Fw 190, 1 He 111)
- Ld.Kdo. West-Frankreich: 7 destroyed (2 Ju W 34, 1 Go 145, 1 Fw 56, 1 Bf 109, 1 Do 17, 1 Kl 35)
- FlÜG 1: 2 destroyed (2 Ju 88) and 4 damaged (2 Bf 109, 2 Ju 88)
for a total of 14 destroyed and 7 damaged. We are missing 11 destroyed and 2 damaged.

Chartres (JG 105) 6 destroyed, 1 damaged. The article in Avions confirm these losses for JG 105: 6 destroyed (4 D 520, 1 Bf 109, 1 Ar 96) and 1 damaged (1 Potez 63)

Tours (Erg./SKG 10) 6 destroyed, 7 damaged. As said above Erg.St./S.K.G.10 lost according to the summary of losses 5 destroyed and 3 damaged. The articles in Avions list all missing losses as belonging to "Ago Front" (probably a repair workshop): 1 destroyed (1 Fw 190) and 4 damaged (4 Fw 190)

Pau (JG 101) 13 destroyed, 11 damaged in JFV. The article in Avions has 8 destroyed (60% damage or above) (6 Ar 96, 1 Ar 66, 1 Ar 68) and 15 damaged (4 Ar 68, 3 Ar 66, 2 Ar 96, 2 D 520, 1 Bf 109, 1 Ju W 34, 1 Potez 63, 1 Potez 160), all for JG 101.

So it is possible that the losses reported in Merignac and St Jean were not all from KG 40, as the losses reported by this unit in the losses summary are inferior to the ones listed in JFV for their airfields. But I have no idea to which unit they may have belonged. On the other hand the airfield file for France by Henry de Zeng (http://www.ww2.dk/Airfields%20-%20France.pdf) says that US airmen CLAIMED 25 aircraft destroyed or damaged at Cazaux, so it could be interesting to check if the figures provided in JFV 13/III are for real German losses or US claims, or a mix of the two...

The article in Avions give the usual details for losses (subtype, Wnr, percentage of damage) if you're interested, but as I said above has nothing for Biarritz, except two JG 101 members killed (Ofhr Alfred Voigt and Ofhr Helmut Tosten).

Last but not least, the attack on Biarritz airfield also hit hard the town, 2 km away from the airfield: the French book "Quand les Alliés bombardaient la France" describes the raid with 4 pages (pages 236-239), a rather long description, and says that 148 French civilians were killed, 196 wounded, 1200 homeless (80 living buildings destroyed or damaged beyond repair, 220 more damaged). According to French witnesses, at least a German sentry and the whole crew of a Flak gun were killed in the town, not counting the casualties at the airport.
A search of http://www.memorialgenweb.org/memori...l/fr/index.php list 16 identified French casualties in Biarritz for 27 March 1944: 3 are shown to have been killed on the airfield, where they worked.
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  #9  
Old 10th May 2019, 18:28
RolandF RolandF is offline
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Re: 1944-03-27 Raid on Biarritz a/f

Great info. Thx again.

Regards
RolandF
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