GERMAN AIR LOSSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 138, 13 June 1941, Page 6

GERMAN AIR LOSSES

One of the American Navy's highest officials is quoted as saying that he believed the war's outcome would be determined by oil supplies, adding that recent developments indicated the Luftwaffe is feeling the pinch of dwindling oil. This may be a very correct assumption, but another cause for the slackening-off of the Luftwaffe could be attributed to her shortage of trained airmen. A little time after London's "blitxkrieg"' had ceased. English newspapers estimated that over 10,000 German airmen were out of action for the "duration," this figure including killed, wounded and prisoners-of-war. The aeronautical correspondent of "The Times" reckoned that

the all-in loss to the German Air Force during the first year of war in all campaigns (Western Front, North Sea, Britain and Scandinavia) would be about 7000 aircraft. From September to December. 1940. the figure given for this period by a highlyauthoritative newspaper was 1604. this making a total of, roughly, 8600 planes estimated lost. To this must be added a further 494 destroyed in the first four months of 1941 (quoted from a British communique) and giving us a grand total of about 9000 aircraft to be debited against the Germans. It can be quickly seen how many trained airmen are represented in this figure and I would not be exaggerating to quote nearly 20.000. Does this not explain the temporarv easing off of Goering's Luftwaffe? ' F. HOOKAVAY.