Hooton's Luftwaffe Loss Totals - request for clarification

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi.

Just a short message to mr. Thompson: The obvious reason for the difference in survivability between east and west were obviously that the Luftwaffe operated mostly over German controlled territory in the west at this time (largely seen), while they were operation directly over or beyond the frontline in enemy held territory in the east. At least how I see it.

Regards,
Andreas B

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by Andreas Brekken

Hi.

Just a short message to mr. Thompson: The obvious reason for the difference in survivability between east and west were obviously that the Luftwaffe operated mostly over German controlled territory in the west at this time (largely seen), while they were operation directly over or beyond the frontline in enemy held territory in the east. At least how I see it.

Regards,
Andreas B

Hello Andreas,

Thank you very much for the excellent introduction to the various types of loss records, I will eagerly await the full article! Looking over what you have written, it looks like the Monatsmeldungen for Gesamt-Flugzeugverluste and more specifically the sheet broken down by Kriegsschauplatz und Luftflotte, is the set of documents most relevant to my inquiries. I have a couple of questions about this:

1) Were such tables constructed for the entire period covered by the individual loss reports, from 1939 to 1945? Are all of them still extant?

2) Are they available anywhere apart from BA-MA?

On a different note, I agree with your assessment that the personnel losses in the East were caused by operations over hostile territory. However, this surprised me insofar as many famous pilots, especially the aces, seem to have survived multiple aircraft write-offs in the East. In view of the overall statistics, it looks like the men involved possessed some uncommon and no doubt extremely important crash survival skills, in addition to their proficiency in air combat.

Regards,

Paul Thompson

[Paul Thompson]

I return to this thread after a long absence with a table of Luftwaffe losses for the period 1939 to 1941, extracted from the relevant AHB reports previously listed by myself and Andrew Arthy. Note that losses prior to 1941 are for the Western front only, so the Polish and possibly also the Scandinavian campaign is excluded. The link to Andrew's post is below:

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showpo...04&postcount=2

The table:

Month Year Theater br Destr enemy action br Destr operations br Destr not on operations br Total
September 1939 West br 15 br 4 br 34 br 53
October 1939 West br 18 br 5 br 57 br 80
November 1939 West br 34 br 20 br 42 br 96
December 1939 West br 9 br 17 br 18 br 44
January 1940 West br 12 br 7 br 46 br 65
February 1940 West br 7 br 7 br 46 br 60
March 1940 West br 10 br 19 br 77 br 106
April 1940 West br 170 br 86 br 73 br 329
May 1940 West br 877 br 167 br 42 br 1086
10 May to 26 June addendum 1940 West br N/A br 98 br N/A br 98
June 1940 West br 253 br 74 br 45 br 372
July 1940 West br 172 br 46 br 49 br 267
August 1940 West br 558 br 106 br 80 br 744
September 1940 West br 459 br 123 br 66 br 648
October 1940 West br 196 br 129 br 87 br 412
November 1940 West br 147 br 84 br 57 br 288
December 1940 West br 34 br 70 br 56 br 160
Jan 1941 West br 32 br 24 br 49 br 105
Feb 1941 West br 42 br 44 br 59 br 145
Mar 1941 West br 102 br 63 br 99 br 264
April 1941 West br 108 br 54 br 54 br 216
May 1941 West br 143 br 49 br 60 br 252
June 1941 West br 107 br 33 br 103 br 243
July 1941 West br 106 br 33 br 40 br 179
August 1941 West br 54 br 21 br 31 br 106
September 1941 West br 32 br 34 br 53 br 119
October 1941 West br 32 br 27 br 53 br 112
November 1941 West br 25 br 20 br 41 br 86
December 1941 West br 27 br 20 br 43 br 90
April 1941 SE Europe br 103 br 48 br 44 br 195
May 1941 SE Europe br 152 br 72 br 23 br 247
June 1941 SE Europe br 2 br 2 br 9 br 13
January 1941 Med & Africa br 23 br 12 br 5 br 40
February 1941 Med & Africa br 20 br 10 br 17 br 47
March 1941 Med & Africa br 14 br 8 br 6 br 28
April 1941 Med & Africa br 60 br 11 br 7 br 78
May 1941 Med & Africa br 26 br 7 br 10 br 43
June 1941 Med & Africa br 24 br 8 br 4 br 36
July 1941 Med & Africa br 10 br 3 br 10 br 23
August 1941 Med & Africa br 22 br 7 br 8 br 37
September 1941 Med & Africa br 8 br 6 br 7 br 21
October 1941 Med & Africa br 7 br 6 br 6 br 19
November 1941 Med & Africa br 52 br 8 br 7 br 67
December 1941 Med & Africa br 54 br 16 br 15 br 85
June 1941 East br 264 br 110 br 8 br 382
July 1941 East br 449 br 182 br 61 br 692
August 1941 East br 254 br 93 br 36 br 383
September 1941 East br 226 br 69 br 49 br 344
October 1941 East br 218 br 56 br 62 br 336
November 1941 East br 132 br 32 br 29 br 193
December 1941 East br 84 br 29 br 29 br 142
Sum 1939 West br 76 br 46 br 151 br 273
Sum 1940 West br 2895 br 1016 br 724 br 4635
Sum 1941 West br 810 br 422 br 685 br 1917
Sum 1941 SE Europe br 257 br 122 br 76 br 455
Sum 1941 Med & Africa br 320 br 102 br 102 br 524
Sum 1941 East br 1627 br 571 br 274 br 2472

[AndreasB]

That's excellent info, many thanks!

Any chance to get that for the Med for Jan/Feb 42?

All the best

Andreas

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by AndreasB

That's excellent info, many thanks!

Any chance to get that for the Med for Jan/Feb 42?

All the best

Andreas

Andreas, as I've just written in a PM to you, unfortunately the AHB reports do not cover any part of 1942. The full list of reports can be seen in Andrew Arthy's post. I'm posting this in the thread since it may be a matter of general interest.

Regards,

Paul Thompson