Luftwaffe units in 1945

[Nick Beale]

Alfred Price's book "The Last Year of the Luftwaffe" will give you quite good overview of the situation.

[OakTree]

Originally Posted by Delmenhorst

Here you go ..

Thanks for the info. Trying to translate some of the German words; Soll, Ist, I am guessing Eins is one. No idea what Verfb means.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by OakTree

Thanks for the info. Trying to translate some of the German words; Soll, Ist, I am guessing Eins is one. No idea what Verfb means.

Soll = should =equals establishment strength
Ist = is = actual strength
Verf. = verfügbar = available (for operations)

Your original question was a huge one, way too big to be properly answered except by reading a lot of books or undertaking many years of research. In effect you asked what maybe two-thirds or more of the Luftwaffe was doing over a six week period. What is it you are actually trying to find out?

[sidney]

Sollstärke - authorized strength
Iststärke - actual or effective strength

[Paul Thompson]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Soll = should =equals establishment strength
Ist = is = actual strength
Verf. = verfügbar = available (for operations)

Nick, thanks to you and sidney for your contributions. See below for my attempt to find the best English translation for all the terms used in the document. Verfügbar remains somewhat unclear, since I have not seen it before in documents describing the state of crew readiness of a particular unit. Soll, ist, einsatzbereit and nicht einsatzbereit are the four common terms.

Flugzeug Muster:
Aircraft Type

Flugzeuge – 1. Soll 2. Ist 3. Eins:
Aicraft – 1. Establishment strength 2. Available strength 3. Operationally ready strength

Besatzungen – 1. Ist 2. Eins (Einsatzbereit) 3. Verfb (Verfügbar) 4. Kampf-Eins:
Crews – 1. Available strength 2. Operationally ready strength 3. Currently on hand 4. Combat-ready

Regards,

Paul