Roba, Jean-Louis La Luftwaffe en France 1939-1945. Volume 2: Le temps des épreuves et de défaites

At the beginning of 1943, following the invasion of the free zone of France at the end of 1942, the Luftwaffe stationed in France was forced to occupy the entire French territory. This posed a real challenge for the local command, which was faced with the impossible task of squaring the circle with only a small number of aircraft and anti-aircraft guns. The situation worsened with the deterioration of the Axis powers' military situation in the Mediterranean, as France all too often served as a reservoir of soldiers and aircraft that could be drawn on as needed to reinforce Africa, Greece and, ultimately, Italy. The year 1943 also saw increasingly fierce attacks on the continent by the American USAAF and its feared four-engine bombers. Daytime fighter operations were gradually worn down and regularly lost aces, whose loss could not be compensated for by the arrival of young, inexperienced and untrained pilots. At night, the RAF's Bomber Command increased its overflights, forcing the local command to expand its night-time fighter operations, which had been in their infancy until then. Despite all efforts, only a few new units could be set up to strengthen the offensive and defensive potential of the German Air Force in occupied France. Thus, KG 6, which was formed in 1942 from various units, initially operated only to a limited extent from French territory, as it was ordered to Italy or Denmark before being deployed against England in attacks of very little strategic value. Even the inevitable approach of an Allied invasion could not turn the tide, and the landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944 and subsequently in Provence dealt a fatal blow to the Wehrmacht. By the end of August 1944, almost all Luftwaffe units had left France. After their retreat to Germany, they carried out sporadic actions in French airspace, mainly in support of ground forces or purely defensively. On 1 January, the Luftwaffe launched Operation Bodenplatte, but it was hardly successful. The last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over France were the He 111s of TG 30, which continued to supply the Atlantic pockets still in German hands at night until the end and did not surrender until 8 May 1945.