Day Fighters in Defence of the Reich

A Way Diary, 1942–45

Donald Caldwell

• Publisher: Frontline Books
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781473813472
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

A day-by-day account of Nazi air operations in WWII by the coauthor of The Luftwaffe over Germany, winner of an Air Force Historical Foundation Award. Day Fighters in Defence of the Reich is a detailed, comprehensive daily reference to the air operations flown by the Luftwaffe. During the Second World War, German air defenses struggled to cope with the threat posed by the American 8th and 15th Air Forces, which were charged with destroying Germany's critical war industries and wresting control of the air over the Reich from the Luftwaffe. This unique volume includes a brief narrative and a table of statistics detailing every mission of every Luftwaffe unit defending the Greater German Reich or the western occupied zone against strategic raids by the USAAF; tables of monthly sorties, losses and victory claims by the USAAF and the Luftwaffe over the Reich and the western occupied zone; and combat accounts by Luftwaffe pilots. This "tremendous piece of work, " is based on documents in the German, American and British government archives and German pilot logbooks and interviews from the author's extensive collection (Aeroplane Magazine). Caldwell is well known for his balanced presentations and the clarity of his writing. This book is a must-have for anyone with a serious interest in World War II aviation history. "Highly recommended, and quite likely to be remembered as one of the most important new books of the year."—Stone & Stone "Such a staggering quantity of information would be overwhelming in less capable hands. But Caldwell spices up his tight narrative with excellent photos and informative captions."—Aviation History

CONTENTS

Introduction and acknowledgements

Chapter 1 August–December 1942

Chapter 2 January–June 1943

Chapter 3 July–September 1943

Chapter 4 October–December 1943

Chapter 5 January-March 1944

Chapter 6 April–June 1944

Chapter 7 July–September 1944

Chapter 8 October–December 1944

Chapter 9 January–May 1945

Chapter 10 Summary and conclusions

Table of equivalent ranks

Glossaries

Notes on sources

Bibliography

Index

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is intended to be a detailed, comprehensive daily reference to the air operations flown by the Luftwaffe in response to daylight strategic missions by the United States Army Air Force against the German Reich and the western zone occupied by Germany. It is a natural complement to The Luftwaffe over Germany: Defense of the Reich, a narrative history of the day Reichsluftverteidigung (Air Defence of the Reich) by myself and Dr Richard Muller. The present book contains a brief narrative and a table of statistics detailing every mission of every Luftwaffe unit defending the prescribed area against daylight strategic raids by the USAAF and RAF, and a summary of every 8th and 15th US Army Air Force strategic mission over this area in which the Luftwaffe was encountered, beginning with the first numbered 8th Air Force raid in August 1942 and ending in May 1945. Many specially prepared mission maps are included, as well as tables summarising trengths, victory claims and losses of the Luftwaffe and the Allies in this campaign. I have called it a ’War Diary’ because its contents are as close as possible to those of a conventional, official unit war diary.

Most people picking up this book will understand the challenges facing any serious Luftwaffe historian owing to the lack of primary documentation. I accumulated the data needed from more than 1,000 sources over a period of 25 years. The tables are inevitably incomplete; I found the lack of some important official data, especially unit mission strengths prior to 1944, especially galling. Since each table in this book might contain data from 100 sources, conventional footnotes for the tables have been passed up in favour of a general discussion of sources and an extensive bibliography. Direct quotes are, however, referenced as they appear.

I first solicited the help of Luftwaffe veterans when I began serious research in 1985, and their generous assistance proved invaluable. Their numbers are unfortunately but inevitably growing fewer by the year, but here are all of the men who provided material that I eventually used in this book: Willi Andiel, Hans Berger, Karl Boehm-Tettelbach, HansEkkehard Bob, Walter Bohatsch, Oskar Bösch, Hans Bott, Hermann Buchner, Eberhard Burath, J. E. Clade, Peter Crump, Martin Drewes, Georg-Peter Eder, Günther Ehrlich, Fritz Engau, Wolf Falck, Richard Franz, Adolf Galland, Georg Genth, Adolf Glunz, Heinz Gomann, Alfred Grislawski, Klaus Hahn, Alois Höhn, Hans:JoachimJabs, Robert Jung, J org Kiefner, Otto Kleinert, Gerhard Kroll, Otto mar Kruse, Heinz-Günter Kuring, Erwin Leykauf, Fritz Marktscheffel, Wilhelm Mittag, Werner Molge, Theo Nau, Johannes Naumann, Karl-Heinz Ossenkop, Dietrich Peltz, Horst Petzschler, Douglas Pitcairn, Gunther RaIl, Willi Reschke, Arno Rose, Wolfgang Schenck, Ernst Scheufele, Jan Schild, Dieter Schmidt–Barbo, Gerhard Schöpfel, Ernst Schröder, Erich Schwarz, Günther Sinnecker, Georg Spies, Peter Spoden, Otto Stammberger, Heinrich Staniwoga, Karl-Heinz von den Steinen, Fritz Ungar, Willi Unger, Hans Weik, Berthold Wendler, Gerd Wiegand, Günther Wolf, Helmut Zittier and Paul Zorner.

Next, special thanks are owed to Les Butler for the maps and to Rich Muller for his frequent encouraging words, many helpful suggestions, editing of the text and tracking down of references, many at very short notice.

Luftwaffe memorabilia are considered collectibles, which presents another challenge to the serious researcher. Photo albums and documents that were shared freely in the 1980s and 1990s now appear on eBay® to be sold to wealthy collectors, frequently never to be seen again by the general public. The small band of serious air war historians and enthusiasts has fought this pernicious trend by freely sharing their material, aided by Internet discussion boards such as 12 O’Clock High (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net). I wish to acknowledge the following men and women for their generous gifts of time, information, leads, photographs, documents and/or photographic assistance: Arno Abendroth, Remi Badru, E. J. Bakker, Bernd Barbas, Nick Beale, John Beaman, Csaba Becze, Paul Berg, Dénes Bernád, Christer Bergström, Steve Blake, Jan Bobek, Winfried Bock, Manfred Boehme, Theo Boiten, Andreas Brekken, Jerry Brewer, David Brown, Eric Brown, Edwina Campbell, Sven Carlsen, Carl Charles, Steven Coates, Jerry Crandall, A. J. Cranston, Jim Crow, Ferdinando D’Amico, Curt Deatrick, Arie De Jong, Ivo De Jong, Wim de Meester, Linda Dewey, Larry deZeng, C. J. Ehrengardt, Russ Fahey, Bob Fletcher, Stephen Fochuk, John Foreman, Jim Forsyth, Robert Forsyth, N orman Franks, Garry Fry, Carl Geust, Bob Gill, Chris Goss, Steve Gotts, Richard Goyat, Timothy Gravelle, John Gray, Lewis Griffith, Russell Guest, Tomislav Haramincic, Ian Hawkins, Bill Hess, Larry Hickey, Michael Holm, Kevin Holzimmer, George Hopp, Bertrand Hugot, Budd Jones, Peter Kassak, Jim Kitchens, Werner Kock, Bob Korkuc, Harold Lake, Malcolm Laing, Bruce Lander, Gerd Lanio, Eric Larger, Joss LeClerq, Jean-Yves Lorant, Rod MacKenzie, John Manrho, Bill Marshall, Lex McAulay, Ian McLachlan, Michael Meyer, Robert Michulec, Kenneth Minor, Kees Mol, Eric Mombeek, George Morrison, Williamson Murray, Wesley Newton, Frank Olynyk, Neil Page, Mack Palmer, Evgeniy Pavlenko, Don Pearson, Robert Peczkowski, Doug Peifer, Gordon Permann, Jim Perry, Toni Petito, Peter Petrick, Gert Poelchau, Dick Powers, Dr Alfred Price, Dr Jochen Prien, Ron Putz, Lorenz Rasse,JeanLouis Roba, Peter Rodeike, Barry Rosch, Brown Ryle, Tom Semenza, Chris Shores, Barry Smith, Evelyn Smith? Sam Sox, Christian Stop sack, Klaes Sundin, Gunter Sundermann, Lothair Vanoverbeke, John Vasco, Leon Venter, Luc Vervoort, Dave Wadman, Walter Waiss, Edward Westermann, Dan Williams, Tony Wood and Ad van Zantvoort. I apologise for any inadvertent omissions; however, anyone who posts to Internet discussion boards using pseudonyms has chosen not to be acknowledged.

The Bundesarchiv–Bildarchiv (Koblenz) has granted permission to reprint photographs from its collection. Permission has been received from Motorbuch Verlag, Helios Verlags- und Buchvertriebsge...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents