Six Months to Oblivion: The Defeat of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force Over the Western Front 1944/1945This book covers the last chapter, the decline and fall of the air defense of Germany. It is a diary of losses and a chronicle in which the fighter pilot plays the lead. It tells of the young men who joined their squadrons full of optimism and derring-do, only to give their lives to no purpose in a last desperate endeavour.\nIts focal point is the controversial Operation "Bodenplatte" on the morning of New Year\s Day 1945, an operation in which the German fighter force received its final mortal wound - losing some 230 aircrew in less than 4 hours, the fighter units suffered their most severe defeat. Only now, after years of evaluation of all available sources, can the true figures of fighter losses on January 1, 1945 be reported. \nBut this picture of the sacrifice of fighter formations does not mean that fighter pilots were unable to score successes. The figures for enemy aircraft shot down and the contact reports show clearly that the German pilots could still both parry and deal out hard punches.\nFew people have any real idea of the actual scale of the German fighter force\s sacrifice. The imagination boggles at the tragic events that took place in the skies over Europe as the war neared its end, even in the perspective of history the full extent of the debacle can scarcely be depicted.\nIn Six Months to Oblivion Werner Girbig explains these last months of the Luftwaffe and the fall of a once mighty air force. |
Contents
Introduction | 9 |
THE HUNT IS OVER | 16 |
The Losses Mount | 23 |
Copyright | |
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11 Staffel 5.Staffel 8th Air Force 9th US TAF Aachen Air Combat airborne airfield Allied fighters American fighter Ardennes offensive Asch attack bailed Belgium Bomb bomber formations British Captured casualties Cologne crashed Culot damaged December dogfight Eindhoven Fähnrich Feldwebel fighter escort Fighter Group Fighter Losses fighter units flak flew flown Flying Fortresses Focke-Wulfs four pilots Gefreiter German German fighter force German fighter pilots German pilots Geschwader ground Gruppe Hptm Gruppenkommandeur Hauptmann heavy bombers home air defense III Gruppe III./JG III.Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 27 Jagdgeschwader 300 Jagdkorps January Kapitän killed or missing Leutnant listed as missing Luftwaffe Major Maldegem Melsbroek Messerschmitts mission Mustangs night fighter November Oberfähnrich Oberfeldwebel Obergefreiter Oberleutnant Oberstleutnant Oberstlt Oblt Operation Bodenplatte parachute pilots killed raid reported missing Rheine Schelde scrambled shot Spitfires Squadron RCAF Staffel leader Staffel lost Staffelkapitän taken prisoner target Thunderbolts took Typhoon Unteroffizier Volkel Vörden ΚΙΑ