The
graph and table represent claim and loss accounts by Gruppen
for each year of the war. For each pair of bars, the left
= victory claims; the right = combat losses (killed or missing
in action + taken prisoner). These are compiled from data
obtained by Don during his extensive research into the Geschwader’s
historical records.
Research
into Luftwaffe victory claims is hampered by a lack of official
documentation. At the end of the war, the Luftwaffe destroyed
(or hid) its master list of victory confirmations. However,
"confirmed claims" would be an unsatisfactory
statistic in any case. It frequently took more than a year
for confirmations to be awarded by Berlin, and it appears
that no claim filed after November, 1944, was ever confirmed.
As JG 26's claims were for the most part quite accurate,
the graph has been based on "claims considered valid
by the unit" rather than "confirmed claims".
We are fortunate in having the claims lists for the First
and Second Gruppen for the entire war, and virtually all
of the claims of the Geschwaderstab. No complete lists exist
for the Third or Fourth Gruppen. However, "milestone"
claims totals for the Geschwader (e.g., 2000, 2500) were
widely reported, and have been used to estimate the Third
Gruppe's claims totals for the graph. Estimates of the Fourth
Gruppe’s total claims were provided by survivors; details
appear to be missing for fewer than ten.
The
casualty data, on the other hand, can be considered to be
accurate. The records of the Wehrmacht's World War II casualties
are maintained with great care by the Deutsche Dienststelle,
the German personnel bureau in Berlin. According to the
official records, Jagdgeschwader 26 lost 701 pilots in combat
(killed, missing, or taken prisoner.) The graph shows these
combat losses in order to provide a direct comparision with
the victory claims, but the Geschwader suffered many other
losses which should be recognized. 121 pilots were killed
in aircraft accidents—wing or engine failure, bad weather,
lack of fuel, takeoff and landing mishaps, air collisions,
and the catch-all "loss of control". Five pilots
died in other types of accidents. And approximately sixty
ground personnel died during the war, from a variety of
causes.
Records
of injuries are less comprehensive, but it is known that
more than 300 JG 26 pilots were wounded in combat (some
several times), and more than 100 were injured in flying
accidents. Some of these men were put back on flying status
within days, but many never returned to combat. Details
may be viewed in the full
casualty listings.
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