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Luftwaffe activity on D Day


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In the film the longest day there is the strafing of the beaches by 2 lone fighters.

In this excellent video on YouTube there is more info.

 

 

 

So many aircraft get built with invasion stripes it would be a nice display with the Luftwaffe units alongside.  A bit like the recent Eduard BoB kits with both sides represented.

 

So does anyone have any more info or have you built anything D-Day related from the Luftwaffe, especially from the Bomber squadrons.

 

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If you can find it “Operation Overlord” June-September 1944 Volume 1 published by Airfile in 2011, by Neil Robinson, this has an illustrated section on Luftflotte 3 operating in the Normandy area. This includes Bf109G-6, Fw-190A-8, Me-410, Bf-110G-4, Ju 88A-4, C-6, S-3, Ju 188A, Ju 188E,

Do 217E, Do 217K, He-111H and He 177A. Hope this is a help to you.

 

Wulfman

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Hello

In Le jour J, a special edition of Ciel de guerre magazine, a number of Luftwaffe sorties countering Allied effort on 6th June is given as 319. Of that 25 were bomber sorties, 9 in daylight and 16 nocturnal. A colour profile of Ju 88 A-4 of III./KG 54, shot down on 6th of June, is also published. Even more interesting is a colour profile of another German bomber, downed on that day, a Ju 87 D of II./SG 103, a Stuka training unit. It is said that this Stuka was one of five aircraft lost on that day, and among the rest of the victims were one Ju 87 A and two Ju 87 C. Sounds incredible, but I do hope these information are correct as operational Ju 87 A on D-Day would certainly make one very interesting model. Cheers

Jure

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I suspect that the Stukas weren't operational but caught on a training flight at a school.  There were no operational Ju.87s on the Western front in 1944.  (Or since 1941?)

 

The classic account has the two German fighters over the beaches as "Pips" Priller and his wingman.  However several (three?) claims had already been made in the early hours when some Fw190 Schnellbombers encountered the Lancasters laying the radar screen ahead of the invasion fleet.  

 

There is an excellent French book giving a full account of the Luftwaffe fighters in the Normandy campaign.  It may take a while to get my hands on it...  I don't know of anything similar on the bombers, but you will find accounts of the Mistel attempts in several sources.  It seems that they were largely wasted against the sunken blockships.

 

EDIT: La Luftwaffe face au débarquement allié: by Jean-Bernard Frappé.  Actually only the jagdwaffe.  It treats each unit involved chronologically, with a description of combats.  The Annexes include a daily list of confirmed victories by pilot, unit and aircraft werkenummer (where known), and a daily list of losses.  The book does discuss at least some of the cases were these are not supported by Allied sources: the Typhoon losses and British claims can be checked against Shores' 2nd TAF books.  For interest, in June 6th these were four Lancasters, one P-51, two P-47s and six Typhoons.  The losses were one Bf109 and fifteen Fw.190s.

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Hi

    Info on the Ju-87's here 

 

 

 

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=20172

 

 

 

  it was a training unit ordered north to the beachhead area

   only reason i can think is for it to go operational 

   but they got shot down 

     cheers

       jerry 

Edited by brewerjerry
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Thanks chaps, all interesting stuff.

 

Here was me thinking it would be FW190's and JU-88's!

 

It amazes me how multi faceted every aspect of the war was, and the more you look at one aspect the more threads lead from that.  Very Alice!

 

Graham; I'm not sure my French is up to it but thanks you, will look out for a copy. 

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I would recommend a lot of French language books in my collection to those with only limited knowledge of the language, because so many of the aircraft and organisational terms are familiar anyway.  Profiles and photos speak an international language.  But this one is rather text-heavy and not really a work with great modelling value other than the photos, which are rarely particularly new.  However it does cover the subject much more thoroughly than anything else I know.  I suspect that you don't need it - certainly at the cost it is likely to be nowadays!

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48 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

I would recommend a lot of French language books in my collection to those with only limited knowledge of the language, because so many of the aircraft and organisational terms are familiar anyway.  Profiles and photos speak an international language.  But this one is rather text-heavy and not really a work with great modelling value other than the photos, which are rarely particularly new.  However it does cover the subject much more thoroughly than anything else I know.  I suspect that you don't need it - certainly at the cost it is likely to be nowadays!

I looked, about £60.

 

So yes, if my French needs a work out LeFigaro is cheaper, and what price accuracy!

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I suspect you'd find it easier to read than Le Figaro:  I can manage historical aviation books (this one was pushing me) but don't fancy newspapers or current affairs matters.  There's a lot to be said for a restricted subject matter and hence limited vocabulary and grammatical variation!

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From memory the Ju 87s of II./SG 103 were not on an operational sortie but were caught in the air when transferring from one base to another.

 

Sometime during the Normandie campaign NSGr 1 and 2 started operating Ju-87s on night ground attack sorties.

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Surely, the nazis must had some "intell" info on an upcoming invasion by the Allies, which makes you wonder why they didn't move a significant part of their squadrons to the French territory.

 

On the other hand, having so many aircrafts just sitting or, partially operating in France and the neighbouring countries would have been a waste of air power.

 

Any thoughts?

 

P.S.: My French also sucks so, no chance of buying a French book on WWII, unfortunately.

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Hello

Jerry, thanks for a very informative link. One of the posters on that forum is probably correct about A-3 being a misprint, though. Still, I keep my fingers crossed.

Shalako, yes, Luftwaffe fighters had been stretched thin at that time. Also, in late spring 1944 France was hardly a healthy flying environment. Germans did move their fighter units fairly quickly to the French territory within days since the beginning of the invasion. I believe that by the middle of June in whole Italy the closest thing to fighters was one Geschwader of Fw 190 JaBos (SG 4, I think), and even this unit had the strength of about a Gruppe. I understand that once in France, German fighters struggled to take care of themselves, and were rarely able to operate effectively. I also suspect a large part of their missions involved ground attack, so AAA and Allied fighters must have taken quite a toll on their numbers. Cheers

Jure

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They wouldn't want large numbers of aircraft sitting in exposed positions suffering heavy attrition before the invasion even began.  What they did do was have a large number of units ready to transfer at very short notice to prepared positions, not all active airfields, in Northern France.   When they got there, of course, they suffered heavy attrition in exposed positions, but that's the cost of losing air superiority.  Germany, of course, is a neighbouring country.  What Hitler wanted in advance was a fast bomber to attack the beaches before the Allied Armies could get settled: hence his enthusiasm for the bomber version of the Me262 and his anger when progress did not take place.  It wasn't as daft an idea as is often presented by fighter enthusiasts.  (But neither did it have any noticeable effect on the progress of the fighter Me262 into service.)

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The Germans knew an invasion was going to happen in the spring or early summer of 1944, however not having any agents in Britain (well, they thought they had some but were effectively paying the British to give them duff information), they were reliant on Signit and limited photographic reconnaissance. Also up until a fairly short time before the invasion, the Luftwaffe day fighter arm was engaged in fairly desperate battles against the USAAF bomber streams with their ever present escorts. 

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11 minutes ago, Mr T said:

the Luftwaffe day fighter arm was engaged in fairly desperate battles against the USAAF bomber streams with their ever present escorts.

...while the other 60% were busy on the East Front.

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Alfred Price, distribution of Luftwaffe 31 May 1944, operational units,

 

Aircraft / Percent / Area / Command

2,392 / 32.53 / East / Luftflottes 1, 4 and 6

294 / 4.00 / North / Luftflotte 5

348 / 4.73 / South / Luftflotte 2

353 / 4.80 / South East / Luftwaffenkommando Sud Ost

2,493 / 33.90 / Centre / Luftflotte Reich

1,039 / 14.13 / West / Luftflotte 3

434 / 5.90 / Transport / Fliegerkorps XIV

7,353 / 100.00

 

Luftflotte Reich held 814 out of 1,602 single engined fighters, next was Luftflotte 4 with 186, then Luftflotte 3 with 168.   All 283 twin engined fighters were with Luftflottes 3 and Reich, Of 874 night fighters Reich held 639, Luftflotte 3 held 103.

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