Michael Balss

Deutsche Luftwaffe, Losses & Claims Part 28 Michael Balss

The "Losses and Claims" series is a day by day account of the Aircraft losses of the German Air force in World War I, Main sources are the GQM (General Quartiermeister Akten) files where all aircraft damaged or lost reported daily to the RLM (Reichsluftfahrt Ministerium) what reason ever. This files are not complete, the year 1944 is missing also the year 1945 is not complete, in the GQM files names of the aircrews only noted when killed, missing or wounded. Second source the NVM (Namentliche Verlustmeldung) Loss report of the unit, in the NVM report it's about the personal loss, mostly the aircraft, Serial No., Markings also noted but not always. This reports are also not complete a lot them been destroyed in the last days of the war. I also used as source hundreds of "Flugbücher" flight logs of former Luftwaffe crew members, allied reports like "crashed enemy aircraft reports", etc. Basic sources are the GQM and NVM files, but for example the GQM report say as location "area London" in other sources had a report with photos and the exact crash side, this location is used, if not absolutely clear the original GQM source is used. Finally to say it`s not a complete loss register there are still lots of missing reports - specially in 1944 and 1945 but also in any other years, but one of near completest register about losses and claims of the Luftwaffe in World War II which covers more than 112000 losses and more than 68000 claims. It shall be a source for all the people seriously interested in the history or the war in the Air in Europe. Part 28 covers the Losses and Claims in the month January 1944. The big jump from Part 2 to 28 is a reaction about the mails I got to publish the late war losses parallel, so next part will be 3 June-August 1940 followed by Part 29 February 1944