Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

AIR SUPERIORITY
46. “The Luftwaffe in Poland,” a study produced by the Luftwaffe historical branch (8th
Section), 11.7.44., AHB, Translation No. Y 11/33.
47. The Poles would of course show themselves to be outstanding pilots in the air
defense of Great Britain in late summer 1940. For the performance of the Poles in the Battle
of Britain, see Francis K. Mason, Battle over Britain (New York, 1969), pp 207-08.
48. Robert Jackson, Fighter! The Story ofAir Combat, 1936-1945 (New York, 1979), pp
27-28.
49. Air Ministry, The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, 1933-1945 (New York,
1983). p 54.
50. Maier, et al., Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkreig, vol 11, p 124.
51. BAIMA, RL 311025, Front-Flugzeug-Verluste im September 1939.
52. For the development of these operational concepts before the war, see Air Ministry,
The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, 1933-1945, p 48.
53. For a fuller examination of the strategic situation on the outbreak of the war, see
Chapter X of Murray, The Change in the European Balance of Power, 1938-1939.
54. Ibid., Chapters IX and X.
55. Telford Taylor, The March of Conquest, The German Victories in Western Europe,
1940 (New York, 1958), pp 1171-18.
56. Air Ministry, The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, pp 60-61.
57. For a graphic description of the enormous difficulties under which Allied naval and
land forces operated as well as the general strategic handicap resulting from German air
superiority, see Martin Gilbert, Winston Churchill, vol VI.
58. For those who think that the contemporary world has little need for history, one
might note that the contemporary situation in the Gulf states of the Middle East, with relatively
ineffective air forces compared to the super powers, invites a similar use of air power:
air strikes to soften up the indigenous opposition, airborne units to seize and hold the strategic
airfields, and a rapid build up by airlift of both ground forces and ground support forces
for air units (admittedly on a grander scale). Once such a force had achieved general air
superiority there would be little hope of an effective counterstrike.
59. Taylor, March of Conquest, p 184.
60. Air Ministry, The Rise and Fall of the German Air Force, p 66.
61. See Table 11, for the cost to the German bombers force in the Battle of France.
62. See in particular, Patrice Buffotot and Jacques Ogier, “L‘armte de I’air franGaise
dans la campagne de France (10 mai-25 juin 1940);’ Revue historique des Armkes, Vol 11,
NO 3, pp 88-117.
63. Major L. F. Ellis, The War in France and Flanders, 1939-1940 (London, 1953), p 37.
64. Alistair Horne, To Lose a Battle, France 1940 (London, 1953), p 37.
65. See the discussion in Galland, The First and the Last, pp 2-5, which suggests that
the missions that he was involved in during the first two weeks of the campaign were either
screening missions to keep Allied aircraft away from German army units or direct free chase
missions in which the Bf-109s aggressively sought out Allied aircraft.
66. See my contribution on the development of Luftwaffe close air support in the early
war years in the Office of Air Force History’s companion volume to this study.
67. Ellis, The War in France and Flanders, p 54.
68. “Der Einsatz der deutschen Luftwaffe wahrend der ersten 11 Tage des Frankreichfeldzuges,”
Auszilge aus dem taglichen Lagemeldungen des Oberbefehlshabers der Luftwaffe,
Abl. Ic., AFHRC: K 113.306-3, v 2. The German losses are attributable to a wide
variety of causes: Allied antiaircraft artillery as well as fighters contributed to these losses.
69. See Ellis, The War in France and Flanders, p 53, for a general discussion of British
losses.
70. Horne, To Lose a Battle, p 253.
71. Ellis, The War in France and Flanders, pp 55-56.
72. Ibid., p 56.
73. Ibid., p 56.
74. “Das Jagdgeschwader 27 des VII Flieger-Korps im Frankreichfeldzug, 1940,” Gener-
almajor A. D. Max Ibel, 25.6.53., BAIMA, RL 10/591.
75. Jackson, Fighter, p 42.
76. Testimony of the former chief of German air intelligence Schmid on 18.6.54.,
108