german air force on d-day and beyond

[permanent666]

i always thought that the german luftwaffe only had 2 planes in action at june 6th but today i read that on d-day the luftwaffe attacked and fighted with 319 planes!

more impressing figures:

allied airforce flew 15000 sorties only at d-day and 96.000between 6th of june and the end of the month.

axis luftwaffe had about 14000 sorties during this period.

between 6th of june and 9th of july only 266 allied planes have been destroyed

[Myth]

the Luftwaffe was completely overstretched, and definitely didn't benefit much from Hitler's Wunderwaffen program except with the jet fighters. however, when they had enough fuel to be dangerous, the Luftwaffe still had teeth and the Allies better beware.

and 266 planes is actually a fair number. of course, it doesn't match the 40,000 strategic bombers alone that the Americans and British lost over the course of the entire war, but (depending on what kinds of planes those downed ones were), it could represent a loss of over 2,000 personnel.

[Luke Timothy]

i always thought that the german luftwaffe only had 2 planes in action at june 6th


I understood this to be the truth as well, from the Movie "The Longest Day" which shows only 2 Luftwaffe planes fighting on D-day... this Movie was supposed to be based on fact, but evidently not. Perhaps I misinterpreted it, and that there were only 2 planes in that squadron.... or something (I'm not too clued up on Air Forces...).

[enigma]

i think the rest of the squadron had shipped out to elsewhere in France a few days pervious and they were all what was left at that airfield ... or something simalar to that.

According to Ambrose, there was over 100 sorties leaunched by the Luftwaffe on D-Day (think its under 200 though) most he does say where agaisnt the fringes of the amarda though.
There was reportly a Ju88 attack agaisnt either Sword or Gold beach sometime during the day which was beeten back by spitfires.

[Luke Timothy]

i think the rest of the squadron had shipped out to elsewhere in France a few days pervious and they were all what was left at that airfield ... or something simalar to that.

According to Ambrose, there was over 100 sorties leaunched by the Luftwaffe on D-Day (think its under 200 though) most he does say where agaisnt the fringes of the amarda though.
There was reportly a Ju88 attack agaisnt either Sword or Gold beach sometime during the day which was beeten back by spitfires.

Well, that clears that up then, I suppose I mustn't have been listening to the movie carefully enough. thanks alot. :)