Research notes - Unit strength reports part I

I have been working on all elements of the supply chain of the German Luftwaffe for some time. Now and then important pieces of information resurface from deep within the wartime archives.

Today I want to share some information on unit strength reporting - the reports used by the central command structures in order to have control over the detailed fighting strength of the Luftwaffe at any given time.

The basic structure of the reporting of units strength was based on the basic tactical building blocks of the Luftwaffe.

For a flying unit the smallest entity was of course the single aircraft and its corresponding crew - and this was also the highest granularity used for reporting. For a unit equipped with single engine fighter aircraft the corresponding crew unit would be the pilot - for a multi-engined bomber aircraft the crew unit could be as large as 5 for a Heinkel He 111 or later in the war even higher for a Heinkel He 177.

Representation of aircraft

Chart explaining the symbols used by the Generalquartiermeister 6. Abteilung for their graphical representation of strength reports for the operational units of the Luftwaffe.

There were three symbols used to represent an aircraft as shown in the illustration above:

• A square was used to represent an operational aircraft - colour and pattern coded to represent the readiness status.
• A triangle was used to represent a transport aircraft. Note that for transport units their aircraft used for operations were defined as a "Kampfflugzeug" - operational aircraft - and thus reported using a square.
• A square tilted 45 degrees was used to represent communications aircraft assigned to the unit.

A combination of patterns and colours were used to give a total overview of the operational status.

The colour blue were used to indicate aircraft of the "Muster" - which I will call model in English - the unit was operating according to their "Sollstärke" - established strength.

• A filled blue square will represent an aircraft of the model which the unit were set up with which is on strength an ready for operations.
• A square filled with a blue cross would indicate an aircraft of the correct model, but not ready for operations - "nicht einsatzbereit".
• An empty square indicate that there are aircraft missing from the established strength.

Strength report for III./JG 52, an unusually plain strength report with no comments, excess aircraft or other peculiarities.

Seen above is an example of a strength report from III./JG 52 - showing their established strength at 40 aircraft at this point in time. They have reported 30 aircraft in the unit, of which only 14 are ready for operations and 16 are not. This is a very plain vanilla version of a strength reports - usually they are filled with both comments and other additional information of which more will be shown later in this text, and in other strength report blog posts to come.

Additional colours used as illustrated in the chart are yellow, red, brown and green.

The colour yellow are used to indicate aircraft that are on the strength of the unit,but of a model not to be on strength or expected to be used by the unit according to established strength.

Red colour are used to indicate that the unit is currently converting to a new model of aircraft, or that the unit is recuperating or at rest.

Aircraft of older versions than the one currently assigned to the unit are indicated by the colour brown.

Finally, the colour green is used to show the number of additional aircraft above the Sollstärke or established strength of the unit.

The following examples show some variations where alle the colours are used in one way or another:  

Strength return of II./JG 5 during conversion from Bf 109E to Bf 109F-4. Note the additional four Bf 109F-4 "zugewiesen", indicating that they have been allotted from production but not yet received by the unit. Also note the excess number of  ten Bf 109E, of which seven are ready for operations. The unit also had a communications aircraft, not serviceable at this point in time, as indicated by the square tilted 45 degrees and drawn between the aircraft and crew returns.

Strength return of II./N.J.G.1 showing seven Ju 88 C, an aircraft model which the unit should not have been equipped with. These are shown in yellow on the strength return.

Strength return of III./J.G. 5 showing the use of the brown colour for older models of aircraft in the reports. It is of interest to note that the units hould have been equipped with Bf 109G series aircraft at this point - but the strength retur show a mix of older models, namely 34 Bf 109F-4 and five Bf 109E-series aircraft.