re: "Masters of the Air" | WWII Miniseries | Apple+ Trailer

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German fighter production from 1939-1945

614 2735 3744 5358 10059 24981 5732

Availability of fuel and qualified pilots would start having an impact as well. Hard to train pilots when allied fighters range all over the country.

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Those who wanted more production in the Luftwaffe finally got that production late in 43 and a huge production in 1944 but as mentioned it was too late at that point. Lacking pilots and fuel, along with the devastation bombing had taken on airfields crippled the air war for Germany. That surge in late 1944 came as a result of the Big Week(allied air raids on German factories) in early 1944 and later the German established the Emergency Fighter Program but as mentioned no resources to deploy them all.

Late 42 and early 43 the Germans tried to maintain what they had by throwing a lot of resources into their new jet which killed production of what they needed to maintain air superiority combined with fighting on different fronts. By the end of the war, I think the Luftwaffe had more ground troops fighting then what they had in the air.

Between 1943 & 1944 the US built over 180000 planes with over 65000 being fighter planes. Over a 3rd of those were the new Mustangs that dominated the air.

Interesting stat for that time as well. The US built over 100 aircraft carriers averaging 2 per month during the war.