Daydream Notes

The book is my jam: it's a very detailed account of FAGr 5, the Luftwaffe long range recon squadron that flew Ju 290s. It also mentions the efforts of other Luftwaffe formations flying out over the Atlantic. Here's what I want to share from it: how tiny the Luftwaffe long range recon force was compared to the Allies. FAGr 5 was operational by November 1943, and by the middle of December had lost two aircraft and its crews: one to Coastal Command Mosquitoes, the other in a crash. On the 11th of December, total long range forces of Fliegerfurher Atlantik [unified Luftwaffe command for coordination with the Kriegsmarine] are: 3 Junkers 290s serviceable (of 6); 10 Focke-Wulf 200s (of 15); 1 Blohm und Voss 222 (of 2). I'm thinking if you stick to RAF Coastal Command, you can find individual squadrons with more serviceable four engine aircraft. After the operation on the 11th of December, U-boats were supported by two Ju 290s and one Fw 200.

Luftwaffe bombers 1944. [KG 100 under air attack 1944.] When you read The Big Book of Luftwaffe History , one surprising thing you notice is how hopeful the Luftwaffe and its managers in the  Reichsluftfahrtministerium [RLM - Reich Air Ministry] were at the start of 1944. This hope was not irrational, either: there were several factors, even facts, to underpin that hope, and it was a durable hope, too, lasting throughout even the spring of 1944, when the already battered Luftwaffe took terrible losses as they lost control of the skies over Germany. The most impressive fact was Armaments Minister Albert Speer's expansion of German fighter production, while dispersing the factories: 27 big plants were turned into roughly 270 dispersed ones, keeping production of basic fighter types (the Bf 109 and Fw 190) resilient in the face of Allied bombing.  Even as the spring losses mounted, Germany made good and even gained fighter airframes: in January, fighter deliveries were 50%...

By the start of 1943, even a devout Nazi might concede the war was not going well for Germany. The Eastern Front had taken a hard reverse: the 1942 attempt to seize the oil fields of the Caucuses had ended in failure and defeat, with Stalingrad a multi-axis disaster for the Third Reich. In Africa, a similar defeat was looming - Hitler had massively reinforced the Afrika Corps in the wake of their defeat at the second battle of El-Alamein, but now lacked the logistic capacity to get them out of Africa. The Allies were pressing Axis forces back, and the United States had surprised with an invasion of West Africa. On the home front, Allied air raids were now a regular occurrence, and manpower problems continued to grow. A report circulated among Reich Armaments industry said that the average industrial worker had burned through their fat reserves by the end of 1942. All this was putting the squeeze on the Luftwaffe, who had increasing demands for pretty much everything: pilots, airc...