Sorties

[anthony]

Dear Sirs, How Many Combat Sorties did the Luftwaffe did the Luftwaffe Undertake on All Fronts, from September 1939 to May, 1945?

[Carsten Petersen]

A lot ……...

[anthony]

No Reliable Figures? I Read the USAAF in the MTO, ETO and the Pacific Flew 2,362,800 Sorties. This Figure does Not Include BNavy and Marines.

[edwest2]

You'll have to do a bit of research, broken down by unit.

[MW Giles]

No Reliable Figures?

I think the Luftwaffe had other things on its mind in May 45 than compiling a statistical digest.

You could make it your life's work to find the answer, it's that sort of endeavour.

If you got within +/- 15 % of the answer I would be amazed, but how would we judge success?

I have a 20 year thing doing the counting for RAF Bomber Command sorties, that's a doddle compared with the Lw

Martin

[Johannes]

I agree with the answers, it'll be in the millions. Looking at flugbucher even unknown pilots flew hundreds of sorties, and thousands of actual flights. Rudel alone flew 2500+, some pilots flew several times a day in Russia, Barkhorn flew 1104 sorties in a full war. I have spent forty years acquiring the dates of 66,500 confirmed victory claims, if you said ten sorties on average to get a claim, well two thirds of a million, that's just fighter pilots alone!

Best of luck trying, best of luck and a century of research...…..just to get what you can, as most flugbucher did not survive I would say an impossible mission.

Johannes