Roba, Jean-Louis/Taghon, Peter La Luftwaffe en Belgique. Band 2: Intensification des combats et repli

In 1941/42, if one disregards the night operations of the British Bomber Command, Belgium was ultimately little affected by the air war. However, 1943, the key year of the Second World War, was marked for the country by the increasing penetration of the heavy bombers of the American 8th Air Fleet, which until then had hardly shown themselves in Belgian airspace. On 6 April 1943, the Belgian population was confronted with the murderous power of the "Flying Fortresses" through the bombing of Mortsel.

On this occasion, the local weakness of German day fighters also became apparent. Despite the regular use of fighters from the surrounding area or the temporary call-up of parts of various fighter squadrons, the German day fighters (supported by flak) had difficulty in stopping the USAAF attacks. In the first quarter of 1944, when the American fighters were now able to fly autonomously over the territory of the Reich, the day defences of the Belgian defensive glacis collapsed and the air battles in the Belgian skies mostly ended in losing setbacks for the still present but outnumbered German day fighters. Despite their great successes and the strengthening of their structures (e.g. the commissioning of Florennes airfield in early 1943), the Nachtjagd was in turn overwhelmed by superior numbers, and it was probably in the last quarter of 1943 that their aircraft lost the game. Although they fought tooth and nail, the night fighters were no longer able to seriously stop the fleets of British four-engined bombers that were bombing the German Reich. The Luftwaffe's ordeal in Belgium continued in 1944 until the country was evacuated in September 1944. However, the air battles in the east of the country continued sporadically and reached their climax in December 1944 with the outbreak of the "Battle of the Bulge". Despite all efforts and sacrifices, however, the Luftwaffe was no longer able to bring about a decision (as it did on 1 January 1945 in Operation "Bodenplatte"). On 30 March 1945, the last German aircraft seemed to have been lost at St. Gery.