Luftwaffe Orders of Battle January 1945

Orders of Battle of the Luftwaffe from 10 January 1945: strength and aircraft of the Luftflotten for the last phase of Second World War.

Air War over Europe 1945

The air war over Europe in 1945 was a crucial phase of World War II, characterized by intense aerial combat and strategic bombing campaigns. By this time, the Allies had gained significant air superiority over the Axis powers, particularly Germany.

Allied Air Superiority
– Strategic Bombing: The Allies, particularly the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF), conducted extensive bombing raids on German cities, industrial centers, and transportation networks. Notable operations included the bombing of Dresden in February 1945, which resulted in widespread destruction and significant civilian casualties.

– Tactical Support: Allied air forces provided crucial support to ground operations, including the advance into Germany and the crossing of the Rhine River. Close air support and interdiction missions were essential in disrupting German supply lines and troop movements.

German Air Defenses
– Luftwaffe Decline: By 1945, the German Luftwaffe was severely weakened due to sustained losses in aircraft and experienced pilots. Despite this, they continued to mount defensive operations using fighters like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

– Jet Fighters: The Germans introduced advanced jet aircraft such as the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world’s first operational jet-powered fighter. While these jets had superior speed and firepower, they were too few in number and introduced too late to change the course of the war.

Key Operations and Battles
– Operation Clarion: In February 1945, the Allies launched Operation Clarion, a massive bombing campaign targeting German transportation infrastructure to further cripple the already strained German logistics.

– Operation Varsity: In March 1945, Allied airborne forces, supported by extensive air cover, launched Operation Varsity, the largest airborne operation of the war, to secure a foothold across the Rhine River.

– Final Bombing Raids: As the war drew to a close, the Allies continued to bomb remaining German industrial targets and cities. The goal was to hasten the collapse of German resistance and to prevent any possibility of a prolonged guerrilla warfare scenario.

Technological and Tactical Developments
– Improved Aircraft: The Allies deployed advanced aircraft such as the P-51 Mustang, which provided long-range escort to bombers, significantly reducing bomber losses.

– Radar and Navigation: Advances in radar technology and navigation aids improved the effectiveness and accuracy of bombing raids, even in poor weather conditions.

Conclusion
The air war over Europe in 1945 was marked by the overwhelming air superiority of the Allies and the relentless bombing campaign against Germany. These efforts played a pivotal role in the eventual Allied victory in Europe, hastening the end of World War II in the European Theater.

the German air force in the last year of the war

The following is a summary of the strength of the operational units at the beginning of 1945, when the Luftwaffe was preparing for the final battles of the war.
The terrible losses of the last 2 1/4 years had left their mark and the force was a shadow of what it had been the Luftwaffe in September 1942.

The striking power of two once powerful air fleets had been reduced to almost nothing. The Soviet advance in the summer of 1944 had cut off Air Fleet 1 in Lithuania, whose 247 combat aircraft had to remain on the ground for most of the time due to lack of fuel.

Air Fleet 2 in Northern Italy was in an even more critical condition. Of its 68 aircraft, 23 were obsolete Ju 87 Stuka and the rest were reconnaissance aircraft of various types. This air fleet did not have a single fighter unit.

Even among the air fleets with a large stock of aircraft, the crippling lack of fuel led to a sharp decline in operations and several of the bomber squadrons were disbanded. Although the operational units flew combat missions with three types of jet aircraft – the Me 163, the Me 262 and the Ar 234 Blitz, less than a hundred of these modern machines were available for deployment. Thus, the Me 109 G, Me 110, Ju 87 Stuka, Ju 88 and He 111, all of which were still based on prewar designs and had become completely obsolete, were far more numerous and were still in service with many front-line units.

Orders of Battle Luftwaffe 10 January 1945

Notes:
Aufklärungsgruppe = Reconnaissance group
Fernaufklärungsgruppe = Long-range reconnaissance group
Nahaufklärungs-Gruppe = Close reconnaissance group
Seeaufklärungs-Gruppe = Maritime Reconnaissance Group
Nachtschlachtgruppe = Night ground-attack group
JG = Jäger (fighter) Geschwader (Wing)
NJG = Nachtjäger (night-fighter) Geschwader (Wing)
SG = Schlacht (ground-attack) Geschwader (Wing)
ZG = Zerstörer (heavy fighter) Geschwader (Wing)
KG = Kampf (bomber) Geschwader (Wing)
LG = Lehr (operational training) Geschwader (Wing)
TG = Transport Geschwader (Wing)

Luftflotte 1

in Kurland (Lithuania)

Luftflotte 2

in Northern Italy

Luftflotte 3

in Western Germany and Holland

Luftflotte 4

in Hungary and Yugoslavia

Luftflotte 5

in Norway and Finland

Luftflotte 6

in East Prussia and Poland

Luftflotte Reich

in Central Germany

The German Air Force in 1945

The last major deployment of the German Luftwaffe also took place immediately on 1 January 1945. When the allied pilots and ground personnel were still celebrating New Year in their canteens, there was a lot of activity at the German airfields.

In the morning hours of the first day of the New Year, ‘Operation Bodenplatte’ began, with which the Allied air forces, which since the clearing of the winter weather have so badly affected the German troops in the Ardennes during their major offensive in the West, were to be eliminated, at least temporarily.
It is not possible to determine the exact number of German aircraft deployed, and the figures range from 800 to 1,500 aircraft taken off. The diary of the OKW, however, reports 1,035 aircraft ready for action for this day.

Practically all flying units of Lieutenant General Schmid’s Luftwaffe Command West were brought up against 13 British and four American airfields in northern France, Belgium and southern Holland with the help of pathfinder planes.
For the Allies, the air strike came as a complete surprise, because, as with the Ardennes offensive, their intelligence services had already missed the German preparations and transfer of entire squadrons to advanced airfields.

The ground fog delayed the take-offs of many aircraft, so that all of them took place between 7:25 and 9:20 am. The approach had to take place at an altitude of less than 200 meters below enemy radar and under absolute radio prohibition.
Hitler had again issued the highest level of secrecy and so not even the anti-aircraft gunners were inaugurated. And just the especially strong 16th Flak Division under Major General Deutsch protected exactly in this area the important launching positions for the V-1 flying bombs and V-2 missiles.

Before that, however, the German planes succeeded in destroying about 439 Allied aircraft in their raids within a very short time, mainly on the ground. At first, they lost 93 aircraft themselves to Allied fighters and anti-aircraft guns.
On the return flight, however, their own anti-aircraft guns, which had not been warned, shot down another 184 German planes, which naturally regarded the planes returning from the west in low level flight as enemy incursions. This increased the German losses to 277 aircraft and among the killed were 59 highly experienced leading pilots.

On the same and next day 570 heavy US bombers attacked the Rhine bridges of Remagen, Neuwied and Koblenz. This disrupted the German lines of communication, which soon brought the Ardennes offensive, which had already been weakened by the increasing Allied resistance, to a complete collapse.
Also in the first days of the new year a change in British deployment tactics occurred to the previous attacks on Berlin. From the night of January 3rd to 4th, only Mosquito bombers flew in groups of 35 to 50 aircraft, loaded with heavy 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) bombs, disruptive attacks on the German capital. These short attacks usually lasted only a few minutes, but every night they woke the population up and continued well into April 1945.

On January 12, 1945, the last Soviet winter offensive began with the Battle at the Vistula. The Soviets were many times superior in numbers and so even in the air the 4,800 Red Air Force planes were matched by only 300 German aircraft.

On 14 January 1945 at 4.30 a.m. the last of 1,200 Fieseler Fi 103 ‘flying bombs’ launched by He 111 bombers hit Great Britain.

From the night of 22nd to 23rd January 1945, the heavy strategic bombers of the RAF Bomber Command attacked the German railway junctions; in cooperation with the American bombers of the 8th US Air Force by day. The increasing transport difficulties caused by the devastated railway network further worsened the German military situation. Allied fighter-bombers destroyed numerous vehicles in attacks on the road network. On 22 and 23 January 1945 alone, 6,000 vehicles were destroyed during the German withdrawal from the Ardennes.

At the same time, fuel shortages increasingly deterred the German Air Force from missions. Many Geschwader (Wings) received only just enough fuel to bring a single squadron into the air each day and sometimes even fuel was missing for the evacuation from the airfields threatened by Allied ground forces.
The V-1 retaliation weapon, on the other hand, was continued in January 1945 with 100 take-offs per day from the Eifel and Holland against the important Allied supply port of Antwerp and the city of Liège. Greater London was also still under fire from the V-2 missile.

It was not until February 1945 that Colonel Steinhoff’s first regular Jäger Geschwader (Wing) 7, equipped with jet fighters Me 262, became operational. In addition to this came the fighter unit 44 under Lieutenant General Galland, which had been replaced by Göring because of his criticism as General of the fighter pilots.

The fiercest air raid on Berlin took place on 3 February 1945, when 937 B-17 Fortresses and B-24 Liberator with 613 escort fighters P-51 Mustang and P-47D Thunderbolt appeared over the densely clouded sky of the Reich capital. Within 53 minutes 2,667 tons of bombs were dropped, which represented the first American terror attack on residential areas. There were about 23,000 dead among the population, while 36 American bombers and 9 escort fighters were lost.

At the same time, the Soviet advance on the Oder forced the German Luftwaffe to transfer practically all squadrons and anti-aircraft units to the Eastern Front. As a result there was even a temporary German air superiority over the Oder area.

In the night of February 13-14, 1945, the terror attack on Dresden ordered by Churchill himself was carried out by 773 Avro Lancaster of the RAF. Presumably the attack was also intended as a demonstration of power against the Soviets on the approaching Eastern front.
The anti-aircraft batteries of the city, which had hardly been affected by the war so far, had all been moved to the approaching eastern front for anti-tank defense. Only 27 German night fighters were able to take off for action that night, but none of them were in action over the Dresden area.

Therefore, 16 square miles (20 square kilometres) of the Dresden city area was been destroyed that night and the fires could be seen up to 200 miles (320 kilometres) away. During the entire Second World War, however, the German Luftwaffe was unable to destroy even 1.9 square miles (2.4 square kilometres) of Greater London.
However, the commander of the Wehrkreis (Military district) reported that the military damage was insignificant.

At noon on 14 February, 311 B-17 Flying Fortresses bombed the burning Dresden. The Mustang escort fighters strafed the refugees on the congested arterial roads in the absence of other targets. The next day 210 more American bombers attacked the city.
The airfields, barracks, communications and transport links and huge supply depots for the Eastern Front were not hit. Instead, the German Federal Statistical Office reports today the number of dead in the city, which is overcrowded with refugees from Silesia, at 60,000, while other estimates range up to 245,000 dead.

On Thursday, February 22, 1945, the Allies launched Operation ‘Clarion’, in which rolling attacks were flown against German traffic targets all day. During two days, about 9,000 Allied aircraft were deployed at a time and practically all traffic connections and junctions in Germany were shut down.

After a long time, in March 1945 the intruder attacks of German long-range night fighters over Britain were resumed. In the night from March 3 to 4, 1945, more than 100 German night fighters chased a stream of British bombers which had flown an air raid into the Dortmund area. Nineteen heavy British bombers were shot down on landing that night and another seventeen were destroyed on the ground.

Shortly afterwards, on 6 March 1945, an He 111 with a Hs 132 glider bomb managed to hit one of the bridges captured by the Red Army near Görlitz at the Oder. Two days later, ‘Mistel’-teams (fighter connected with an unmanned bomber as directed ‘flying bomb’) succeeded in destroying two more Oder bridges.

In the meantime, however, the Americans had already crossed the Rhine in the West when, on 7 March 1945, the 9th US Armored Division surprisingly managed to capture the Ludendorff railway bridge near Remagen over the Rhine, which was to shorten the war in Europe by several weeks.

Therefore, on 13 March, the German Air Force began to attack the bridge with all available units. 360 fighter-bombers as well Me 262 and Ar 234 Blitz jet bombers of the IIIrd group of the 76th Kampfgeschwader (Combat Wing) were deployed on this important strategic target on this day alone.
Later, also ‘Mistel’-teams and even eleven V-2s in the first tactical missile operation were used against the bridge.
Finally, the already badly damaged bridge collapsed, but only after the Americans had already formed a strong bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Rhine. And on March 24, the British under Montgomery also managed to cross the Rhine at Wesel.

In the meantime, the heaviest air raid of the Second World War in Europe took place on 12 March 1945. The target was Dortmund, which had already been devastated before, when 1,107 British Lancaster and Handley Page Halifax bombers dropped 4,851 tons of bombs.
On March 14th, a 10-tonne ‘Grand Slam’ bomb destroyed the important Bielefeld railway viaduct, which thus was unusable until the end of the war.

On March 18, Berlin also experienced its heaviest air raid of the Second World War, when 1,221 heavy American day bombers dropped more than 4,000 tons over the city center. Although there were fewer victims than in the air raid on 3 February 1945, the damage to the city was considerably more extensive. 48 American bombers and 5 escort fighters could be shot down, of which eight bombers and all 5 Mustang fighters were brought down by the 37 Me 262 jet fighters of JG 7.

On 27 March 1945 the last two V-2 missiles hit Britain, the first of which killed 130 people in a block of flats in Stepney in East London.

A total of 1,115 V-2 rockets hit England; 517 of these hit London. There were 2,724 dead and 6,467 seriously injured.
On March 29, the last of a total of 9,200 flying bombs launched against Britain also reached the island. Of these, more than 1,000 crashed after take-off and 3,957 were destroyed by the British defense from fighter planes, anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons. Nevertheless, there were 6,139 dead and 17,239 seriously injured in Britain.
Another 8,000 V-1s hit the area around Antwerp and another 4,000 hit other targets in Belgium.
On 5 April 1945 the V-2 bombardment, which had been now directed exclusively against Antwerp, Brussels and Liège in the last days, ended finally.

On 7 April 1945 the ‘Sonderkommando Elbe’ (Special Commando Elbe) went into combat. These ‘Rammjäger’ (Ramming fighters) under the command of Colonel H Herrmann with hardly trained young pilots opened fire only at short range on American bombers, which attacked Dessau. Each pilot was to shoot down at least one bomber and if not otherwise possible, ram it.
It came to the last big air battle over Europe, in which between 120 and 183 German ramming fighters and escorting Me 262 of JG 7 were in action. Only 15 fighters of the ‘Sonderkommando Elbe’ returned and 77 German pilots were killed and 51 American bombers were reported destroyed.

The last mission of the German Luftwaffe over Great Britain took place on 10 April 1945, when a jet reconnaissance aircraft Ar 234B-1 flew from Stavanger in Norway over Scotland.
On April 17th, during the Soviet offensive on Berlin, there were still 1,433 German aircraft in the northern section and 791 of Luftflotte 6 further south on the Oder Front. However, the Red Air Force had about 7,500 aircraft at its disposal.
The last strategic air raid against Berlin was on April 20, 1945 by 150 heavy American bombers. The following night saw the last arriving of Western Allied aircraft over Berlin, when at 2 a.m. Mosquito Intruder Bombers of the RAF appeared again over the Reich’s capital, which became a front line city that day.

In the night from May 2 to 3, 1945, the Royal Air Force flew the last air raid on Germany with 125 Mosquito bombers. In the process 174 tons of bombs were dropped on the port of Kiel and there was no more German air defense.

German fighters shot down about 70,000 enemy planes during the Second World War, 45,000 of them over the Eastern Front. 103 German fighter pilots achieved more than 100 air victories.
The German fighter and destroyer squadrons lost about 55,000 aircraft. Between September 1, 1939, and February 28, 1945, 44,065 German crew members were killed, 28,000 were wounded, and 27,610 were captured or missing.

References and literature

Luftkrieg (Piekalkiewicz)
Das große Buch der Luftkämpfe (Ian Parsons)
Luftwaffe Handbook (Dr Alfred Price)