Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military From: bywater!archet!wlm@uunet.UU.NET (William L. Moran Jr.) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: dogfighting Message-ID: <7589@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 20 Jun 89 03:46:35 GMT References: <7022@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7210@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7250@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7395@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7450@cbnews.ATT.COM> <7521@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: A Desperate and Dedicated Crew Lines: 68 Approved: military@att.att.com From: bywater!archet!wlm@uunet.UU.NET (William L. Moran Jr.) In article <7521@cbnews.ATT.COM> marsh@linus.UUCP (Ralph Marshall) writes: > > >From: marsh@linus.UUCP (Ralph Marshall) ... >[stuff about merits of rotating out pilots deleted] >> ... stuff deleted > > Another cause for the decline of the Luftwaffe was the sheer lack >of planes. Their military production was messed up during the war due >to a variety of problems: Hitler expected a short war and thus didn't >concentrate on coming up with a second generation of planes to replace >the Me109 until it was really too late (the FW 190 was only available after >they had lost most of their aircraft factories and strategic materials) It wasn't so much that Hitler planned on a short war, but he had come to power promising prosperity and not hardship. Germany was not on a real war footing until at least 1943; many Germans had servants until at least then. This meant that there were fewer people to work in the war related industries. In any event, Germanies production of planes peaked after the Focke Wolfe was in production. I have a pamphlet I picked up at the Imperial War Museum which give FW 190 Production figures as: 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 228 1850 2171 7488 1630 At least part of the problem was that the people in charge of production were fairly short sighted. For example, look at the production of ME 109s 2764 2657 6013 12807 2798 As can be seen from this, German production peaked in 1944, and they hadn't decided by then to emphasize FW 190 production. They were still building JU 88s as fighters then; this can't be considered one of the best decisions of the war (yes I know they were used as night fighters with some effect). If the Germans had gotten the ME 262 into production in 1943, as they might have had Hitler not tried to make it a Fighter/Bomber, the air war would certainly have been far more costly for the Allies. >Also, the rate of loss exceeded the new production rate (regardless of >quality of the replacements) for most of the war, while both the United >States and Russia built HUGE numbers of planes from 1943 onward. So, >the Luftwaffe never really had problems with pilots (until 1945, when >everything went to hell and they had boys and old men in the army) as much >as they did with planes and fuel. I'm not sure this is true. My vague recollection is that the Germans peaked in terms of number of fighters available for defence of Germany in August of 1944 ( this may be wrong ). Anyway, the fighters of the Luftwaffe were never used very well in defense of Germany (Goering was a fool). Also, Fighter production wasn't emphasized by Hitler until mid 1944 at the earliest (fighters were defensive). Bill Moran -- arpa: moran-william@cs.yale.edu or wlm@ibm.com uucp: uunet!bywater!acheron!archet!wlm or decvax!yale!moran-william ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ``There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die, and we will conquer. Follow me.'' - General Barnard E. Bee (CSA)