[ BODENPLATTE ] – The Luftwaffe’s Last Hope – The Attack on Allied Airfields New Year’s Day 1945

‘We took off at 08.00 hr in the early morning light, formed as planned and took off on our first leg of the course to the target at low altitude. Directly behind my left wing, so very close, was Major Anton Hackl.

I could clearly see his face. Behind us, closely packed, like a flight of hungry seagulls flying behind a ship, followed the impressive Gruppe of long noses. It should have been 49 Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9s; I could not count them. I repeatedly turned to watch this impressive view.

This seemingly endless formation of strong, shining metal machines in the early morning sun has always remained in my memories. We were not flying too long when Fred Weimann, the radio operator, called in that a fighter had crashed. It was later that we learned it had been shot down by our own flak…’

In the early morning of New Year’s Day 1945, as the last great German offensive in the Ardennes slowly smouldered to an end and the Allies prepared for a final year of war in north-west Europe, against all odds, assumed to be the Luftwaffe starved of fuel and fighting spirit launched a massive, surprise, low-level strike targeted at allied tactical airfields throughout France, Belgium and Holland. Planned under great secrecy, the raid gambled on using the bulk of Luftwaffe fighter assets on the Western Front, with the aim of decimating significant elements of both the British 2nd TAF and the US Ninth Air Force on the ground.

As the winter skies lightened, more than 900 German aircraft – most of them Fw 190s and Bf 109s drawn from eleven Jagdgeschwader as well jet units as elements from the ground attack and swept across vulnerable and unsuspecting airfields, including Brussels and Eindhoven. Altogether, more than 300 Allied aircraft were destroyed, with a further 190 damaged. But for the Luftwaffe it was to be a pyrrhic victory; Two hundred and seventy-one fighters were lost and many more damaged.

Worse still, of the 213 pilots lost, more than 20 were valuable formation leaders. Following years of meticulous research, this is a definitive study and an invaluable reference source for the student of air warfare.