THE RED GAMBIT SERIES

Hi Colin,

just curious on what you had in mind for the types of planes the luftwaffe would be using in 1946. Given the available stock of WWII leftovers and any new production would be diffiicult given the dispersed nature of German war production, would You have the luftwaffe using spitfires,thunderbolts, typhoons,tempests, corsair or mustangs.The luftwaffe aircrew captured during the battle of Britain and North Africa were imprisoned in Canada. These would be available for retraining in North America. Even though You may not write about this in forth coming books, What are Your thoughts on this.

Simply put, not far off your own. I have alrady listed available Luftwaffe Squadrons, formed using existing stocks of captured aircraft or assembled from bits and pieces.

1st Jagdstaffel – FW-190 HE 162 [9]

2nd Jagdstaffel – FW190

3rd Jagdstaffel – Me 262

4th Kampfstaffel – HE 111, AR 234c [6]

5th Kampfstaffel – JU 88

6th Nachjagdstaffel – JU 88, FW ta 154

7th Jagdstaffel - FW190, FW ta 152[3] DO 335 [6]

8th Nachtjagdstaffel – HE 219 [12]

9th [Aufklarerstaffel] –ME410

10th Kampfstaffel – HE177 [18]

11th ZBV Staffel – HS 129 [12]

12th Nachtjagdstaffel – JU88, Ju388[4]

13th Storkampfstaffel – JU87

14th Transportstaffel – JU52

15th Transportstaffel – JU52

16th Jagdstaffel – FW190 [50% casualties]

17th Jagdstaffel – ME262

18th Kampfstaffel – HE111

plus, 40th and 100th Transportstaffel and 23rd Nachtjagdstaffel so far.

The question I posed myself is simple. Would the experimental high man hour consumption aircraft be continued with. the answer was probably not, and the absence of the available tooling sealed their fate. The 262 stands a chance, of course, but maybe not in its present form. the FW152 possibly? The higher range night-fighters as well maybe.

The Allies have recently retrieved a large number of flight personnel, and married many of them with aircraft considerd obsolete against the German but not so against the Russian. You will find Whirlwinds at some time, by example.

None the less, the availability of trained personnel is, in my opinion, suddenly larger than the available number of aircraft.

At this time, the producers of aircraft [USA, Canada and Britain] are just managing to keep ahead of replacement demand as well as adding a few new units to the roster.

New arrivals in theatre will tend to come with fully qualified air crew, so we will see less squadron upgrading going on, which will inevitably mean that older types of aircraft will remain in service.

This probably isnt a huge problem, given teh Allies general superiority in air design to this point, but might become an issue if the USSR gets its act together and produces something fit for purpose, and in numbers. Their problem then woudl be air crew. Even though Stalin has his ex-POWs available, he still baulks at using them.

Hope that helps.

gee_colin@yahoo.co.uk at September 16, 2014 at 3:34 AM

Simply put, not far off your own. I have alrady listed available Luftwaffe Squadrons, formed using existing stocks of captured aircraft or assembled from bits and pieces.

1st Jagdstaffel – FW-190 HE 162 [9]

2nd Jagdstaffel – FW190

3rd Jagdstaffel – Me 262

4th Kampfstaffel – HE 111, AR 234c [6]

5th Kampfstaffel – JU 88

6th Nachjagdstaffel – JU 88, FW ta 154

7th Jagdstaffel - FW190, FW ta 152[3] DO 335 [6]

8th Nachtjagdstaffel – HE 219 [12]

9th [Aufklarerstaffel] –ME410

10th Kampfstaffel – HE177 [18]

11th ZBV Staffel – HS 129 [12]

12th Nachtjagdstaffel – JU88, Ju388[4]

13th Storkampfstaffel – JU87

14th Transportstaffel – JU52

15th Transportstaffel – JU52

16th Jagdstaffel – FW190 [50% casualties]

17th Jagdstaffel – ME262

18th Kampfstaffel – HE111

plus, 40th and 100th Transportstaffel and 23rd Nachtjagdstaffel so far.

The question I posed myself is simple. Would the experimental high man hour consumption aircraft be continued with. the answer was probably not, and the absence of the available tooling sealed their fate. The 262 stands a chance, of course, but maybe not in its present form. the FW152 possibly? The higher range night-fighters as well maybe.

The Allies have recently retrieved a large number of flight personnel, and married many of them with aircraft considerd obsolete against the German but not so against the Russian. You will find Whirlwinds at some time, by example.

None the less, the availability of trained personnel is, in my opinion, suddenly larger than the available number of aircraft.

At this time, the producers of aircraft [USA, Canada and Britain] are just managing to keep ahead of replacement demand as well as adding a few new units to the roster.

New arrivals in theatre will tend to come with fully qualified air crew, so we will see less squadron upgrading going on, which will inevitably mean that older types of aircraft will remain in service.

This probably isnt a huge problem, given teh Allies general superiority in air design to this point, but might become an issue if the USSR gets its act together and produces something fit for purpose, and in numbers. Their problem then woudl be air crew. Even though Stalin has his ex-POWs available, he still baulks at using them.

Hope that helps.

Will Germany restart aircraft manufactiring at some point?

yes, at some point, should it become necessary :-)