Me's vs Spits over North Africa: Who were those guys?

[Andrew Arthy]

Hi,

I spent last year researching the basic topic in this thread, the Luftwaffe in North Africa in 1942, so I thought I might add my opinion about some of the issues raised.

Regardless of the exact date of the combat, we can assume it was October or early November 1942.

Graham’s point about the loss of morale in I./J.G. 27 is valid. It was no doubt a combination of combat fatigue and the loss of senior pilots, Marseille, Stahlschmidt, and Steinhausen, that saw the Gruppe withdrawn from combat in October 1942. But don’t attribute the withdrawal too much simply to Marseille, because the Gruppe had seen 17 months of continuous combat, which was surely significant. Perhaps we can consider Marseille’s death the final straw, as Graham says.

As for lack of aircraft for the Luftwaffe in North Africa, yes, this was becoming a problem in October and November 1942 in Egypt, but it was certainly not bringing operations to a standstill. On 21 March 1942, when the Axis supply system was almost at its best, there were 159 Luftwaffe sorties in North Africa, on 6 September 1942 there were 130, and on 22 October 1942 there were 142.

To look at it simply in terms of number of aircraft available:

Luftwaffe Aircraft Strength in North Africa

17.01.42 168
04.04.42 169
10.06.42 233
20.08.42 266
20.10.42 241

What should be noted is that the DAF was consistently getting bigger, and was getting more aircraft with greater performance, notably the Spitfire.

Regarding the idea that the Luftwaffe in North Africa was dependent on a few ace pilots, I calculated that between February and 23 October 1942, the top ten Luftwaffe aces claimed 424 of the 930 victories in North Africa. To me, that indicates an over-reliance on a few pilots.

Nick’s point about bombing of airfields is very important as well.

Luftwaffe losses on the ground in North Africa, February – 23 October 1942

To bombing: 64 aircraft destroyed, 89 aircraft damaged
To special forces: 37 aircraft destroyed, 19 aircraft damaged
Total: 101 destroyed, 108 damaged.

These figures are far from complete, but are all accounted for in German records.

Serviceability is also an important issue. The Luftwaffe in North Africa was always behind the DAF in this regard. The DAF consistently maintained serviceability of 70-75%, while the Fliegerführer Afrika never rose above 67%.

Fliegerführer Afrika Serviceability

17.01.42 - 51.7
04.04.42 - 50.2
10.05.42 - 67.3
10.06.42 - 61.3
27.07.42 - 54.3
20.08.42 - 60.1
20.10.42 - 53.5

Cheers,
Andrew A.

“You’ll never silence the voice of the voiceless” – Rage Against The Machine