Erich, I was referring to JV44 - IIRC there were times it was scattered across available airfields, and Galland also had Sachsenberg's Platzschutzstaffel under his direct command. IIRC JG7 Nowotny was likewise scattered around various available long strips and converted roads? II/JG 7 moved operations south-east too, ending up near Prague. I used to have a list of all the movements I could find, for a thread on AHF ages ago, but can't turn it up
yes that is why I referenced JV 44. II./JG 7 was a paper unit only the Kommandeur actually was going to try through all the red tape and somewhat secretly (we have the documentation and interview of the ace Kommandeur) was going to disband II. gruppe altogether and reform to give cadre to Kommando Welter..........of course no-one is supose to know this
There was actually quite a lot of synthetic jet few being produced in Germany in March and April '45; Heinrich Fey when debriefed after his defection gave the Americans details of IIRC SIX factories alone that HE knew of...which subsequently received visits based on his info But part of the problem for Galland was that the Western Allies overflying most of Germany by then were making ground transport alomost impossible. Movement of fuel, new complete engines and spares around the country was almost impossible...and crippling given the engine failure rate on the Me262. Units were having to send their own trucks to bring back engines by night etc. In the end, Galland moved his units further and further east and south towards Munich....nearer and nearer Messerschmitt's production facilities for spares and aircraft. Hans Fay did not defect until 30 March 1945 when the Luftwaffe was in its dying throes.Production of synthetic fuels were at their lowest.Leuna was the most successful of the plants as regards its recovery but was down to 15% of its capacity in the closing stages of the war with a cycle of being damaged and repaired.Of course there may have been synthetics plants which were unknown to the British Economic Warfare team who had identified 17 such sites in the 1940/1941 era.However as the Germans found out to their cost, it is relatively easy to construct underground engineering manufacturing site and hide them from the enemy but synthetic oil plants are somewhat different and cannot be disguised.As the German construction workers were reported to have said "we repair the plants then the bombers return" which obviously reflected the work being put in by Allied Air Force reconnaissance units Some idea of the affect of the raids against synthetic oil plants can be obtained from the history of KG 1 which had an operational strength of 90 He 177 long range bombers.During May and June 1944,the unit, commanded by Obersleutnant Horst von Riessen, moved to its operational bases in East Prussia to operated against long range Russian targets.Even before the national shortage of fuel,KG 1 found that there was no fuel reserves at the airfields and that the following day's operation depended on a fuel train arriving.The fuel trains attracted the presence of Russian fighter bombers which put serious limitations on Riesen's KG.Furthermore to get the aircraft on to operations,each aircraft required 6 tons of fuel for medium range operations, a fuel requirement of nearly 500 tons to mount an 80 aircraft raid.By August 1944, this 500 ton consumption represented the entire daily output of the German oil industry. As regards the ME 262,it could operate on a wide range of fuels but the low grade fuel J-2 was ideal and economical for the engine and as J-2 fuel was not flexible in its use,J-2 became the preferred fuel.Even so the test proving of aircraft was curtailed from a 2 hour duration down to 30 minutes with some aircraft not tested at all but flown direct to operational units. Oil was indeed the achilles heel of the German war machine.Speer recognised the imminent collapse of the German war economy when he reported to Hitler on 15 March 1945, "The German economy is heading for inevitable collapse within 4-8 weeks". The potential shortage of oil and its adverse affect in waging war had always been a sword hanging over the Third Reich.As early as September 1942 the Germans reached a fuel crisis point,extended operations on multi fronts resulted in stocks being down to two weeks' supply.The first affect was a reduced fuel quota to flying training schools and the fuel shortage was only improved when Speer reorganised the synthetic oil industry in the summer of 1943. Stocks then rose to a record high of 574.000 tons by April 1944.Then came the Allied Air Forces extended targetting of the German oil industry from the spring/summer of 1944 which would ultimately lead to the collapse of the Luftwaffe.
