Sources

As far as this site's author knows, no comprehensive quantitative analysis of the World War II air war has been published. The sources that are available provide fragmented and often inconsistent data, little of which seems to be acvailable on the web. The following are the most important sources that have been used as in preparing this site, and are all recommended reading, the limitations in their quantitative data notwithstanding.

  • World War II: A Statistical Survey, John Ellis
  • Aircraft For The Many, M. J. F. Bowyer
  • The Air War, 1939-1945, Richard Overy
  • German Aircraft Industry And Production, Ferenc A. Vajda and Peter Dancey
  • Axis Aircraft of World War II, David Mondey
  • British Aircraft of World War II, David Mondey
  • American Aircraft of World War II, David Mondey
  • In The Skies Of Europe, Hans Werner Neulen
  • The Luftwaffe, 1939-45, Williamson Murray
  • The Squadrons Of The Fleet Air Arm, Ray Sturtivant
  • Flying Units Of The RAF, Alan Lake
  • History Of Marine Corps Aviation In World war II, Robert Sherrod
  • The Japanese Air Forces In World War II
  • Japanese aircraft Of The Pacific War, Rene J. Francillon
  • Rapid Fire, Anthony G. Williams
  • Anti-Aircraft Artillery, Ian V. Hogg

There are many web sites that cover aspects of the World War II air war. A detailed listing is available at:

Definitions

Comparing totals of front-line combat aircraft is complicated by the fact that different air arms are organized in different ways. Many published totals for front-line combat aircraft include reserve or training aircraft for some countries but not for others.

To enable comparison, we define front-line combat aircraft to be all combat aircraft, other than reserve aircraft, operated by combat units. Despite the term “front-line”, geography is not a factor in the definition, since the air war has no front line in the traditional sense and even locations remote from combat need defense against enemy aircraft and shipping. Neither is serviceability a factor; typically only a subset of front-line combat aircraft are serviceable at any given time.

Combat aircraft are those whose primary purpose is combat, i.e. deploying weapons such as guns, bombs or missiles against the enemy. The major categories of combat aircraft are fighters and bombers. Gun-carrying ground attack aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft that carry anti-submarine or anti-shipping weapons are also considered combat aircraft. Reconnaissance and transport aircraft are not considered to be combat aircraft whether or not they carry defensive armament.

Combat units are squadrons, groups or wings whose primary purpose is combat. Dual role units such as fighter-reconnaissance, bomber-reconnaissance and bomber-transport units are included as combat units. Units whose primary purpose is operational training are not counted as training units, even though they may have a secondary combat role. Many air arms used their operational training units in combat at critical phases of the war.

The number of front-line combat aircraft is estimated for five countries, the US, Great Britain, the USSR, Germany and Japan, and for two country groupings, the British Commonwealth, “other Allies” and “other Axis.” Foreign units integrated into the air arms of the major countries are included in the country totals. This factor is most significant for Britain’s RAF which included a large contingent of non-British squadrons from countries including Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and Poland.