Fuel situation of Axis units in the west, April 1945

[Kurfürst]

On April 22 1945 Luftwaffenkommando West reported the following fuel stocks on airfields in Bavaria:

B-4 = 350,000 liters
C-3 = 284,000 liters
J-2 = 1,897,000 liters


On April 12, `45, Lw.Kdo. West had 42 FW 190As on-hand (Stab/JG300, II./JG300, Stab/NAGr.13), and 197 Bf 109s, (1./NAGr.13, 2./NAGr.13, 3./NAGr.13, Stab/JG53, II./JG53, III./JG53, IV./JG53, III./JG300, IV./JG300,1./NJG11).

110 of these Bf 109s were  from Stab/JG53, II./JG53, III./JG53, IV./JG53.
III/JG 53 and IV/JG 53 had 73 Bf 109s with 75 fighter pilots on hand. These two Gruppe of JG 53 had been cleared for 1.98ata in 21 March 1945 by OKL, Lw.-Führüngstab, Nr. 937/45 gKdos.(op) 20.03.45.

In addition, KG 51 could muster 16 Me 262s, and 1.(F)/100 five Ar234s, and various other types (Ju88/188, Ju87, FW 189, Bf110)

Fuel situation of the Axis-Italian ANR units at the same period :




Aircrafts on hand,the Order of Battle of the ANR during 22nd April 1945 :

Bf 109s
7 x G-6s
27 x G-14s
39 x G-10
3 x K-4s
2 x G-12 trainers

[justin_g]

Isn't J-2 jet fuel? The table shows ANR was using this fuel?

[Kurfürst]

AR 234s in Italy were using J-2, I just left it included for the sake of completeness.

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by Kurfürst
AR 234s in Italy were using J-2, I just left it included for the sake of completeness.

So the C3 shipped to Italy must have been used by the Fw190s in the LW unit NSGr 9.

Now this is a nice start on the German fuel situation. When can we expect data for the other areas > Luftflotte 4, Luftwaffen General Norwegen,  Luftflotte Reich,  Luftwaffenkommando East Prussia,  Luftwaffenkommando Courland.

[Kurfürst]

Originally posted by MiloMorai
So the C3 shipped to Italy must have been used by the Fw190s in the LW unit NSGr 9.

Because...? Funny I recall NSGr 9 operated mainly Ca 314, Fw 58, CR.42, Ju 87 with only a few 190s received in January 1945.

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by Kurfürst
Because...? Funny I recall NSGr 9 operated mainly Ca 314, Fw 58, CR.42, Ju 87 with only a few 190s received in January 1945.

It is 1945 you are giving Italian fuel data for, is it not?

[justin_g]

Originally posted by Kurfürst
AR 234s in Italy were using J-2, I just left it included for the sake of completeness.

I see - the fuel stocks in the table are also being used by LW units based in Italy.

[MiloMorai]

Looks like a lot of C3 fuel but lets see how much fuel that really was.

That 284,000l of C3 was 6762l for each of the 42 Fw190As. That was enough for only 10-11 sorties (internal tank) for each of the Fw190As (6762/640), with the tanks going dry.

If the 42 Fw190As carried drop tanks, then it was only enough for 7 sorties for each of the Fw190As (6762/940)), with the tanks going dry.

[justin_g]

42 Fw 190 & 197 Bf 109 (1:4.69)

284Kl C-3 & 350Kl B-4 (1:1.23)

If only the Fw 190's are receiving C-3, then they can fly about 4 times more sorties than the 109's. And that's not counting all the other a/c types which would be using B-4...

I think it is clear that there was C-3 being supplied to 109 units.

[Kurfürst]

Indeed. Milo asserts that every time the fuel tanks would be dried out, including the aux. 118liter rear fuel tanks of the 190A-8. I doubt they would push luch that hard, sorties were relatively short, especially considering the distances in 1945. Fly there, bomb/shoot down that, return base.

Moreover it has to be kept in mind that this is the immiditate fuel storage on airfields alone - thats not where the bulk of fuel is kept, but from where aircraft are being directly refueled from.

[Squire]

New research has uncovered that the late war Luftwaffe ran on moonshine...brewed by these two brothers, in the bavarian alps:

http://home.nycap.rr.com/tomtomtom/hillbilly.jpg

They escaped capture in 1945 and now reside in Arkansas.

[Kurfürst]

"Thats it then, I want mine to be able to do that!!! "

[MiloMorai]

Originally posted by Kurfürst
Indeed. Milo asserts that every time the fuel tanks would be dried out, including the aux. 118liter rear fuel tanks of the 190A-8. I doubt they would push luch that hard, sorties were relatively short, especially considering the distances in 1945. Fly there, bomb/shoot down that, return base.

Moreover it has to be kept in mind that this is the immiditate fuel storage on airfields alone - thats not where the bulk of fuel is kept, but from where aircraft are being directly refueled from.

Kurfurst are you really that dense between the ears?

One does know how much fuel would be used by any a/c on a sortie, so the best way to illustrate how much C3 there was, is to put it in terms as completely emptying the tanks.

Now some words by Butch:

"The main problem was that deliveries were quite erratic, sometimes it took three weeks or more to have the fuel delivered to units !!! Moreover beginning in february there were nearly no more fuel produced and stocks were depleted by mid April as far as i remember. From then on the units had to live with what was still available."

So much for immediate replenishing of the base's fuel stock.

"B4/C3 could not be kept for long at this time of war because of lack of additives, Gum appeared quite fast proving troublesome especialy with C3. I have some fuel nalysis summary around. it was not much of a problem when considering low stock since it was consumed quite fast, but stockpiling large amount would have proven quite troublesome".

[Knegel]

Hey Milo,

your personel attacks dont make quotes from Butch more credible!

Butch for sure have much datas, even he got proven as wrong. And if i read a 'as far as i remember' in a sentence, i would be even more carefully!

I dont have many original datas regarding the fuelsituation, but at the time when the allieds still was outside of west germany, i dont found a hint of fuelfroblems.
You remeber the "Reparatur-Anweisung 2. Nachtrag Nr. 191/345 from des Reichministers für Rüstung und Kriegproduktion, in 14 March 1945"?? It clearly state that they had enough C3 fuel to run the DB605DC engines (they dont had to rebuild them to DB engines).
Thats only 2 month before the end!

Anyway, we still dont have enough datas to give a exact answer, but personel attacks and quotes from someone else without datas dont help to solve anything.

Edit: btw, even Butch state that in mid April the groups was on their own(before they got fuel). Thats some weeks  before the end. So Butchs quote dont say anything again Kurfürsts post.

Greetings, Knegel

[butch2k]

Originally posted by Knegel

You remeber the "Reparatur-Anweisung 2. Nachtrag Nr. 191/345 from des Reichministers für Rüstung und Kriegproduktion, in 14 March 1945"?? It clearly state that they had enough C3 fuel to run the DB605DC engines (they dont had to rebuild them to DB engines).
Thats only 2 month before the end!

There is something i have to verify pertaining to this document, as i have another one stating that DC/ASC are to be delivered at 1.80ata boost contrary to previous orders but i'm not sure if it was published before of after 191/345.

The problem was not the lack of C3, there were C3 being produced along with B4. Note that they dropped the addition of additives preventing formation of Gum which account for troubles using both B4 and C3 after they have stayed a few weeks in tanks. That was a problem encountered by the team in charge of the captured a/c after the war btw.

By 1945 airfields had usualy a few days worth of fuel counting a couple of sorties a day. Problem was that deliveries were erratic, movement of fuel was done by night only and sometimes took a long time. Some deliveries taking weeks to arrive.

Fuel production was virtually finished by february 1945 and the strategic stocks were used and they lasted until mid April.

C3 use for all units was virtually impossible due to the amount of C3 fuel being delivered first to the 190 units and then to the 109 with ASC/DC engines.