Aircraft Transfer From East 1943 ?

[Carl Schwamberger]

Here & there I've seen remarks about a mass transfer of interceptors from the Eastern Front to Germany in October 1943, or autumn of 43. Nothing specific or detailed about this in the books on my shelf. Can anyone point to a good source or several on this subject?

The short version I've seen claims 600 to 800 interceptors were relocated circa October 1943. The number varies from source to source. Neither is it clear if this was all a direct transfer from east to west, or part a redirection of replacement aircraft and pilots previous scheduled for the eastern front.

Thanks for any sources, bits of information, or thumbnail sketches clarifying this.

[Larry D.]

The October 1943 8th AAF daylight raid on the Schweinfurt ball bearing industry was at least partially the cause for this. Also, the front in the East was somewhat shorter after the Germans had been driven back hundreds of kilometers following the loss of the Kursk salient, Bryansk, Rzhev, Vyazma, Smolensk, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, the Kuban Peninsula, etc., etc. Compare the front maps for June and mid-October 1943. See books by Christer Bergström, E.R. Hooten, and the German language single engine unit histories.

L. deZ.

[Carl Schwamberger]

Thanks. I was aware the losses over Italy that spring and summer were not replaced, leaving that front much reduced. It looks like 1943 saw a large contraction of the GAF into the Reich.

[Larry D.]

Thanks. I was aware the losses over Italy that spring and summer were not replaced, leaving that front much reduced. It looks like 1943 saw a large contraction of the GAF into the Reich.

That it did, that it did.

[Cantankerous]

Given that Italy surrendered on September 8, 1943, how many Luftwaffe planes based on the Eastern Front were transferred to northern Italy and the Balkans to prop up the Italian Social Republic and the Nazi puppet government in Croatia?

[Larry D.]

How many? I do not recall seeing a compilation for that in the existing Luftwaffe literature, but if you will settle for the total number of Geschwader, Gruppen and Staffeln, then you can go to the following website and do the totaling yourself. All three of these have change of location information spanning the course of their existence, so going through all of them is easy albeit time consuming, maybe 6 to 10 man-hours. A typical Staffel averaged 9 or 10 aircraft, a Gruppe 27 to 30, and a Geschwader (including the Stabsstaffel) 90 to 99. These averages bounced all over the place, but they are probably plus of minus 15% of the actual numbers. Your movement parameters should be from the Eastern Front to Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania.

Go to: www.ww2.dk

L. deZ.

[Carl Schwamberger]

[/quote]

Given that Italy surrendered on September 8, 1943, how many Luftwaffe planes based on the Eastern Front were transferred to northern Italy and the Balkans to prop up the Italian Social Republic and the Nazi puppet government in Croatia?

How many? I do not recall seeing a compilation for that in the existing Luftwaffe literature, but if you will settle for the total number of Geschwader, Gruppen and Staffeln, then you can go to the following website and do the totaling yourself. All three of these have change of location information spanning the course of their existence, so going through all of them is easy albeit time consuming, maybe 6 to 10 man-hours. A typical Staffel averaged 9 or 10 aircraft, a Gruppe 27 to 30, and a Geschwader (including the Stabsstaffel) 90 to 99. These averages bounced all over the place, but they are probably plus of minus 15% of the actual numbers. Your movement parameters should be from the Eastern Front to Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania.

Go to: www.ww2.dk

L. deZ.

Thanks. that site will be helpful. I have some items from assorted sources that have a attenuated version of the same information.

What I have for Italy & the Balkans fits the contraction model. The Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean peaked at roughly 1,200 operational aircraft early spring of 1943 went through some fluctuations late spring, was down at least 25% early summer and was under 700 operating aircraft at the start of September. The loss rates over Tunisia, Sicilly, and south Italy were very high Spring and summer 1943 & replacements from the factories and flight schools were not enough. I'd have to dig deeper to see if the numbers held steady or continued to decline through the autum and winter.

[Larry D.]

I might mention that both the Luftwaffe and the Air Intelligence section of the British Air Ministry produced dozens of daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly reports concerning the location and strength of Luftwaffe air units. These can be found at BA-MA Freiburg and at the British National Archives (BNA) London.

L. deZeng