Where is the Luftwaffe?

How successful the R.A.F. offensive against Germany is in keeping the German air force away from Russia is anybody's guess. But one reasonably informed guesstimate came last week from Peter Masefield, aviation expert of the London Sunday Times. He calculates that more than two-thirds of Hermann Goering's battlers are being held in Europe and Africa to fight off the British. His guess at the disposition of Nazi air strength:

France and the Low Countries, 1,050 first-line planes;

Norway, 300;

Italy and Sicily, 700;

North Africa, 500;

Greece and Crete, 100;

Germany, 400.

Total R.A.F. pin-down 3,050.

Masefield estimates the Rumanian-German air fleet in the Balkans at 200; thinks the Luftwaffe has 1,600 on the Russian Front.

Masefield's conclusion is that Hitler is caught in a dilemma: the eastern offensive cannot be long delayed, but first the Fuehrer must withdraw aircraft from France or Italy, thus giving the R.A.F. even greater supremacy and perhaps making a continental invasion possible.

U.S. experts are inclined to accept Peter Masefield's figures, except those for France and Germany. The British, they say, exaggerate Hitler's air power in France, consequently overestimate the number of Nazi planes keeping vigil against Britain. U.S. information is that the bulk of Germany's western air fleet is still within the Reich, a position whence it could be hurled quickly against Russia, Britain or to the south, as occasion arises.

Sunday Timesman Masefield also pointed out the fact that "for every machine in the fighting line, there are about five more in reserve and in use for training and transport. Germany's total air strength is believed to be about 30,000 aircraft"; annual production 24,000. If true, this was a remotely encouraging figure. The U.S. alone expects to produce 60,000 planes in 1942.

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