How Late Was Carpiquet Used by the Luftwaffe?

[Rex]

I know that the Reich had control of the field with ground units, but were Luftwaffe planes actually based at Carpiquet in June 1944?  It seems unlikely that they would be flying planes in and out of the field once the ALG B-x fields started being built nearby.  Although it would have been interesting if the Germans were flying out of Carpiquet while the Allies were flying out of Rucqueville.  It would have been like, instant AA engagement, and you'd practically be in each other's FLAK range as soon as you got airborne.

I've studied everything I could get my hands on, and from my non-expert analysis, the Normandy 2.0 Map is showing a representation of Normandy as it existed somewhere between July 20 - August 31 1944.

I found a few online resources but I still struggle to find a good accounting of which and how many planes were operating where in June 1944, and this is especially true of German planes.  Does anyone know of any good books or resources I could get my hands on?

Thanks.

Edited June 26, 2024 by Rex

[Mr_sukebe]

I’ve read a number of books on the subjject.

My understanding is:

- numbers of Luftwaffe aircraft at a specific location varies enormously, depending upon date.  We tend to think that a squadron would setup at an airfield and stay there for a while.  Apparently the Luftwaffe had the capability and was bounced around between theatres at short notice, and in big numbers.  So for example, when the allies pushed against Rommel and started sinking his supply ships in the Med, the Luftwaffe dispatched a decent % of their aircraft to assist.

In the start of 1944, the US 8th and 15th were massively increasing in size and also operating with escorts, at least the German border.  The Luftwaffe response was the basically deploy close on 2/3rd of their aircraft to defence of Germany.  Those aircraft were stripped from the eastern front, Italy and France.  So by May, whilst there were some squadrons in France, it was not many, and they were hugely outnumbered.

- with the huge increase in US fighters over France and then Germany, Luftwaffe losses were massive.  Added to that were low availability of fuel, losses of experienced pilots and a surge in poorly trained pilots.  So despite production increasing massively, they were not being flown as well and there losses due to accidents were close on those from combat.

- Rommel had been promised something like 1000 aircraft when the allies invaded in June.  Whilst not well known about, the Luftwaffe tried to achieve  this, and really did strip around 1000 aircraft from other theatres.  However, the allies knew they were coming, the bases they were going to were not genuinely ready and pretty much all of them were either smashed at their new airfields or hammered by still superior numbers.

So getting an accurate picture of aircraft both capable of flying, having fuel and a decent pilot is not easy.

The reality is that by June 44, the Luftwaffe had so many issues, that it really wasn’t capable of defending France and only really had a token level of resistance, choosing instead to defend Germany.

[Skewgear]

All of the above, basically. By June 1944 France had no Luftwaffe presence worth speaking of west of Dreux or north of Chartres.

Caen-Carpiquet was a major Alied bombing target for the obvious reason during the invasion buildup. It wasn't used at all in June, really, other than as a bloody battlefield between the Canadians and the Panzer division holding the city. On Project Overlord we include Carpiquet in the 3rd June cross Channel mission as that one's a bit more experimental/gameplay focused than the rest of our milsim missions.

Orders of battle and locations are easy to verify for the RAF, moderately so for the USAAC and pretty damn hard for the Luftwaffe unless you speak German and/or have the right reference books. @Night Owl compiled a very handy list of what went where and on what dates for PO mission design use.

Our Allied squadron placement is determined by the Angels Eight orders of battle in combination with the RAF squadron histories on historyofwar.org. We have a research archive of about 120 RAF Operational Record Books for verifying details such as bort codes (RAF aircraft code letters and airframe serial numbers - yes, each and every one is historically accurate to the date of the mission) and target locations. Shores and Thomas' seminal Second Tactical Air Force volumes 1 and 2 is good for verifying air combat details and losses, but not so much for the ground strike war.

There are occasional errors in the below links, as the original tables were compiled from a variety of sources about 20 years ago.

https://www.projectoverlord.co.uk/history/second-tactical-air-force-order-of-battle/

https://www.projectoverlord.co.uk/history/ninth-tactical-air-force-order-of-battle/

[Skewgear]

18 hours ago, Rex said:

Although it would have been interesting if the Germans were flying out of Carpiquet while the Allies were flying out of Rucqueville.  It would have been like, instant AA engagement, and you'd practically be in each other's FLAK range as soon as you got airborne.

On this, Rucqueville ALG didn't exist. I think Ugra intended it as a portmanteau of Martragny and Camilly-Le Fresne. The latter was shelled by artillery fairly regularly in June according to the resident Canadian wing's ORB, including on occasions where C-47 Dakotas were seen to be landing.

Similarly, the RAF and RCAF units at Beny sur Mer reported being mortared by the Luftwaffe garrison of Douvres radar station, barely a mile away, until that was assaulted and cleared on 17th June.

I could bang on about this stuff for ages, there's a lot to be learnt from the old unit diaries once you start reading them. Fire and explosion at captured German ammo bunkers near Longues, Canadian officers chasing each other around Caen on horseback, the shooting down of an Fw190A with just 5 rounds from a Bofors, the German aircraft carrier reported west of Granville....

[Rex]

Quote

There are occasional errors in the below links, as the original tables were compiled from a variety of sources about 20 years ago.

https://www.projectoverlord.co.uk/history/second-tactical-air-force-order-of-battle/

https://www.projectoverlord.co.uk/history/ninth-tactical-air-force-order-of-battle/

These are awesome! Thank you!

[Night Owl]

@Rex

There is a pretty good online ressource for the German airfields in France here https://www.ww2.dk

Most of the airfields which are on the German side of the map were not used at all in summer 1944. The only ones we have on the map which were used as primary air bases with air units stationned there are:

• Guyancourt
• Villacoublay
• Saint-Andre
• Evreux
• Cormeilles
• Creil
• Beauvais
• Lonrai

Of the others, some were used as forward rearming and refueling, or emergency landing fields, but not before end of June 44. Carpiquet, Lessay, Goulet, Tricqueville, Bernay, Feecamp, and many others were not used at all in 44.