Questions about Operation Steinbock losses

[Simon Trew]

Laurent,

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Yes, the Luftflotte 3 loss tables in AIR 20/7709 are detailed. They do not link losses to units, however, nor provide any information about personnel losses.

I have photos of all pages from January – May inclusive, for my ‘Steinbock’ research purposes. I also have the June, July and August loss tables. I can Wetransfer them to you if you are interested. PM me if so. They are quite large files so it might take a few transfers. But it is possible.

Below is a summary of the He 111 data. I am not especially interested in He 111s as they did not participate in ‘Steinbock’. But they are still interesting to me because they were in 1944 quite an unusual aircraft (as a ‘bomber’) in the West. So understanding how their losses were calculated with reference to units like KG 26 should shed light on the principles that govern inclusion in (or exclusion from) the Luftflotte 3 loss tables with reference to other types, especially Ju 88s belonging to KG 26, KG 30, KG 76 and KG 77, He 177s belonging to KG 40 and KG 100, and Do 217s belonging to KG 100. If I can understand that, then I can confirm more easily Luftflotte 3 losses among units involved in ‘Steinbock’ (not only on operations but in accidents, transfer flights etc). As you know, there are some good unit histories that shed light on these kind of ‘non-battle’ losses, but (as far as I’m aware) there aren’t histories of KG 30 or KG 40. It is true there are good books about the He 177 that include loss data, but it is all a jigsaw.

On a vaguely related matter, I have been surprised to discover that the various published orders of battle presented for Steinbock forces on the eve of the operation all contain oddities or exclude units that probably ought to be included. For example, Mackay and Parry’s excellent ‘The Last Blitz’ (p.60) lists III/KG 30 as a ‘Steinbock’ unit (when it wasn’t) while Medcalf's ‘Ju 88 Vol 2’ (p.606) excludes I/KG 76 entirely, despite the fact that it was heavily involved in the opening raids. As for figures for KG 66 aircraft available, nobody seems to agree with anybody else! Anyway, I guess that is another story.

Best wishes,

Simon

Here are the January – May 1944 He 111 losses. I hope they are interesting to you and others, and I wish you luck in linking KG 26 losses over the Mediterranean to the data below!

2 Jan: 2 damaged (non-operational)
5 Jan: 1 destroyed on ground by bombs + 1 damaged (non-operational)
10 Jan: 1 damaged (non-operational)
13 Jan: 1 damaged (non-operational)
14 Jan: 1 damaged (non-operational)
21 Jan: 3 destroyed and 5 damaged on ground by bombs + 1 destroyed and 1 damaged (non-operational)
22 Jan: 1 destroyed (non-operational)
23 Jan: 1 destroyed (non-operational)
24 Jan: 1 destroyed and 1 damaged (non-operational)
25 Jan: 1 damaged (non-operational)
26 Jan: 2 damaged (non-operational)
27 Jan: 1 damaged on ground by bombs
1 Feb: 1 missing on operational flight
3 Feb:1 damaged (non-operational)
5 Feb: 1 destroyed in air combat + 6 destroyed and 5 damaged on ground by bombs
6 Feb: 2 destroyed and 3 damaged on ground by bombs
7 Feb: 1 damaged (non-operational)
8 Feb: 1 damaged (non-operational)
11 Feb: 2 damaged on operations but not by enemy action
13 Feb: 1 damaged (non-operational)
16 Feb: 1 destroyed (non-operational)
26 Feb: 1 destroyed (non-operational)
4 March: 1 destroyed (non-operational)
18 March: 1 destroyed and 1 damaged on ground by bombs
28 March: 7 destroyed and 7 damaged on ground by bombs
20 April: 1 damaged (non-operational)
23 April: 3 destroyed and 2 damaged in air combat
25 April: 4 destroyed and 3 damaged on ground by bombs
28 April: 1 destroyed on ground by bombs and 1 damaged on ground ‘by aircraft fire’ [strafing]
4 May: 4 destroyed in air combat
8 May: 1 destroyed on ground by bombs
11 May: 1 destroyed on ground by bombs