Aircraft salvage and repair in the Luftwaffe - James S. Corum in " Why Air Forces Fail " (1)

In general terms the Germans were not very good at aircraft salvage. On the offensive during the early stages of the war the Luftwaffe was 'created' to support short sharp campaigns - a tactical air force operating close to the front  helped maximise sortie rates but did not require a large salvage organisation. The Luftwaffe's logistics and support operations were designed accordingly. Front-line units only had limited means to repair and rebuild aircraft; damaged aircraft had usually to be entrained for rear area repair facilities which meant that they were out of action for a correspondingly lengthier time frame. In his book 'Unflinching Zeal' Robin Higham indicates that during 1940 the RAF salvaged and repaired some 44% of aircraft 'shot down' compared with just 8% retrieved by the Bergungskommandos (salvage detachments) of the Luftwaffe. As the tide of war turned, aircraft serviceability rates in the Luftwaffe plummeted. Many aircraft  - only slightly damaged or requiring only relatively minor interventions - simply had to be written off. In addition large numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft fell in inaccessible areas - such as the UK or North Africa (see below). On top of this, Luftwaffe losses through accidents and non-combat causes were huge...by way of example over one thousand aircraft were lost in the month of February 1944 alone....some 50% of these were accidents caused by inadequate training. (Boog quoted in Isby p361).

 James S. Corum writing in " Why Air Forces Fail " states that Luftwaffe serviceability and maintenance rates were considerably lower than that of the Allies; 50-60% compared to 70-80%. As the tide of war turned against the Germans " the Luftwaffe's weak repair system ensured the loss of thousands of aircraft.." (Corum p210). The Luftwaffe did not have the resources or a logistics system in place to repair and put aircraft back into service. As much as one third of the Luftwaffe's losses during 1943-44 was the result of aircraft simply being abandoned. Many airfields over-run by the Allies - for example in North Africa - were little more than dumps..

Below; in the UK 49 Maintenance Unit salvage party retrieving Otto Zauner's II./ JG 53 Emil during late November 1940. More than 90 Bf 109 Emils made successful force landings in the UK during 1940, although some seven of these were partially or wholly destroyed by fire and a number were stripped and appraised at Farnborough.

Oblt. Gunther Bode's Stab I./ JG 27 Emil on display at Stanhay's garage in Ashford, Kent during 1940

Uffz. E. Poschenrieder's Messerschmitt Bf 109 E 7./ JG 53 - Battle of Britain film footage

A Battle of Britain period film clip as posted by 'footagefarmusa' on youtube via the Kent Battle of Britain museum FB page depicting No.66 Squadron at RAF Gravesend during the Battle of Britain. The clip features several scenes from the crash site of Uffz. E. Poschenrieder's Messerschmitt Bf 109 E of 7. Staffel JG 53 after it had been shot down at Broomhill, Strood, Rochester on Monday 30th September 1940. Click once to watch the clip here..

 
 Uffz. Ernst Poschenrieder's wrecked aircraft was heavily souvenired by locals. The military guarding the downed aircraft also reputedly sold souvenirs taken from the Messerschmitt to the locals! Several of these souvenired items are now on show in the Kent Battle of Britain Museum...

 " ..this aircraft was belly landed by the 7./JG 53 ace Hermann Neumann at Bologne 10 days earlier. Poschenrieder, a new pilot was given it after repair only to get shot down in it too. I have said that it likely still carried Neumann's victory tally on the fin and was always told "they would have been painted over before Ernst took the aircraft over" well there they all are clearly still applied... The aircraft stayed on the potato field for some time. One of the soldiers who was tasked with guarding it was trying to make a quick buck selling bullets from the aircraft to the locals. Well the pilot maintains that he let off all his ammo prior to crash landing, which rather upset the farm workers in the fields as they thought he was trying to shoot them. Anyway the soldier was sneakily selling his own bullets as ones that came from the aircraft...." comment via the Kent BoB FB page (Clint Mitchell)

Elsewhere, following his book launch at Hawkinge reported here earlier this week, Christer (Bergstrom) and his party of Swedes and one Dane departed Folkestone and headed up to the Shoreham (Kent) Aircraft museum where Christer placed the memorial cross onto Hurricane P3860 in which the 23-year old 607 Sqn pilot John Lansdell was shot down on 17 September 1940. The young Hurricane pilot baled out but succumbed to his injuries.

Christer Bergstrom's book ' The Battle of Britain -an epic conflict revisited' (Casemate) - book launch for the 75th anniversary Battle of Britain 15 September flypast

..after watching the 75th anniversary Battle of Britain flypast on the cliffs at Capel (between Folkestone and Dover and site of the Battle of Britain Memorial) we moved on to Hawkinge for the launch of Christer Bergstrom's new book, ' The Battle of Britain -an epic conflict revisited' (Casemate) at the Kent Battle of Britain museum. The book certainly looks impressive and the paper quality is reasonably good - the artworks are very nice and there is a good selection of interesting pics. The text is very readable (not cluttered with details such as WNr. etc..) and the presentation is in a diary format. There are over 500 'notes' at the rear of the book.
A couple of points that struck me while dipping in and out of the contents;
- the contribution that Bomber Command made to the RAF's success in the Battle of Britain - RAF bombers operated throughout the summer over Germany and the occupied countries, kept the pressure on psychologically, directly contributing to the 'indecision' in the Luftwaffe leadership ...(London vs. the airfields).
 - the 're-appraisal' of combat losses on both sides - the RAF's being much higher for the four months July to October
 - the re-evaluation of the performance of the Bf 110 units, which enjoyed better 'kill' ratios than the 109 units; " the Bf 109's alleged superiority over the Bf 110 finds no support in these statistics.."

More on the book from publishers Casemate here

I was impressed with Christer - a very engaging and genial character- and his new book looks to be excellent. Here Morten (Jessen) and I are clutching our copies while I struggle to hold onto Lady (my Pomeranian) who has just spotted 'Scramble' the museum cat - nearly had a 'dogfight' on our hands!

Elsewhere on the Air War Publications blog Morten reports on his trip around some of southern England's Battle of Britain sites, including a day at Audembert and other Battle of Britain sites in northern France.

Stab Bf 110's (part 1) - AIMs decal sheet - Battle of Britain III./ZG 26 Bf 110 C/Ds

It has been a while since the Luftwaffe blog last looked at John McIllmurray's superb decal sheets in his AIMs decals series. (See " Monotone Me's " here for a variety of Bf 109s and 110s finished in a variety of single-colour schemes). One of his latest sheets -"Stab Bf 110's" - comprises no fewer than 24 subjects for the 72nd scale package and covers aircraft displaying some of the Luftwaffe's most impressive Stab markings - the symbols of command. The sheets cover the Bf 110 Zerstörer Gruppen of ZG 76, ZG 26 and also feature various Nachtjagdgruppen from NJG 1, NJG 4 and NJG 6, each machine on the sheet displaying a variety of impressive chevrons or bars or combination of both!

Below; pic in my collection via Boiten. ZG 26 Bf 110 C with pre-war style Geschwaderkommodore markings assigned to Oberslt. Huth, a WW I vet with one air victory. Standard 70/71/65 finish seen at Lille during or after the Westfeldzug almost certainly coded 3U+AA

Each subject is fully illustrated in colour with John's detailed explanatory notes and picture references over no less than five A-4 sheets. Even if you are not planning on a great deal of model building, this set represents an excellent reference source to add to your library. In fact this is such an large and comprehensive sheet that I will be devoting a number of posts to its various subjects and hopefully building one or two of the subjects as well.

Above; another of Kommodore Huth's Bf 110s after a gear collapse around September 1940. He preceeded Schalk as GKr of ZG 26

This first selection I have chosen to cover from the sheet features III./ ZG 26 during the Battle of Britain and the reference source is a Wochenschau film clip that can be viewed below. The following images are screen captures. The film depicts III./ZG 26 Bf 110s taking off from their base at Arques possibly on a sortie during the Battle of Britain but more likely when transferring back to the Reich during October 1940 at the 'conclusion' of the battle. Aircraft appear in a mix of early and later camouflage schemes.   The clip opens with " 3U+LR " rolling past the camera and turning onto the takeoff strip. The painted letter "N" on the cowling above the exhaust indicates that this machine is powered by DB 601 N engines running on C3 100 Oktan (octane) fuel.

Next up is Bf 110 C "3U+AD", the usual aircraft of the Kommandeur Hptm Johann Schalk. Schalk had five claims confirmed during the Battle of Britain, his Bordfunker Uffz. Scheuplein one claim confirmed. Schalk took over as Kommodore ZG 26 on 01 October 1940 following the award of the RK on 5 September 1940. Other leading III./ ZG 26 pilots were Lt. Botho Sommer (Gr. Adj. and KIA on 07 October 1940) and Ofhr. Alfred Wehmeyer, both with five claims during the Battle of Britain.

Finally the aircraft get airborne

A single click to view here



More on I. and II./ZG 26 aces on this blog here

John's AIMS site for decal orders and more is here

John is an enthusiast (and very skilled) modeller himself and provides us lesser mortals with a fantastic product at a reasonable price so please do support him!

Dornier 17 handbook illustrations, detail views, interiors, walkaround - reference for the new-tool Airfix Do 17 in 72nd scale - page last updated 05 October 2015

A collection (20+) of reference photos (from both expired and current ebay auctions) and handbook drawings to accompany 'Stew' Dapple's build of the new-tool Airfix Do 17 on this blog here

Click to view full screen/image

Above; Do 17 Z of 6./KG 3. Currently on offer here

Above; Do 17 Z-5 KGr. 606, Lannion, France

 Above, Dornier 17 stencil detail ( Aussenbeschriftung) and splinter scheme camo lay out (Tarnschutzanstrich)

Below; Do 17 Z-6 of 2./NJG 2 seen in Gilze-Rijen during September 1940. See pic on page 65 of Volume 1 of the Stipdonk/Meyer Zerstörer- und Nachtjagdverbände series. Originally with 5./ NJG 1 this Staffel was re-designated 2./ NJG 2 in September 1940..

Below; Dornier Do 17 Z of KG 2 (Geschwaderkennung U5)

Below; Dornier Do 17 auf dem Militär-Flugplatz Sedes bei Saloniki in Griechenland - airfield of Sedes in the vicinity of Salonika, Greece.