Narrative of the Operation
Details of Enemy Daylight Air Operations

Single-engine fighters.--Not more than 50 fighters were put up on D-day against the airborne landings. On D-day against the airborne landings. On D plus 1 this had increased to 100-125 sorties, but this effort was not exceeded until 23 September (D plus 6), when an estimated 150-200 sorties were flown over Holland. By this time the further reinforcements from central Germany had begun to participate. It is not though that they were engaged in strength before the 23d. Of the fighters initially available in the west, approximately two-thirds operated against the airborne landings and the remainder on the Nancy-Metz front. The Aachen sector appears to have been temporarily deprived of air cooperation. At the end of the period about 600 of a total of 800 fighters located in western Germany were available for operations in the region of the airborne landings. Serviceability is unlikely to have exceeded 60 per cent, and the theoretical figure of fighters ready to operate against airborne troops and transports would therefore be on the scale of 300; but it appears that at the peak effort not even one sortie per available aircraft was achieved. It is possible that these estimates are low, because of the GAF's custom of operating when no Allied fighters are about and consequently no sighting reports are received, and also because in bad weather a number of abortive flights may have been made of which we have no evidence. In the absence of comprehensive reports from Allied ground troops, exact assessment is difficult, but there is no reason to believe that the estimates given here were appreciable exceeded. In any case, hampered by fuel difficulties, lack of large numbers of trained pilots, and inadequate servicing facilities at its operating bases, it is not surprising that the Luftwaffe has repeatedly failed to live up to its hypothetical capabilities.

Altogether, the German fighter reaction was very close to the 100-150 sorties forecast as the average to be expected over a period of 3 days following the actual landings.

Fighter-bombers.--There was only slight evidence of fighter-bomber and mortar aircraft operations during the period. Some fighter units could have been temporarily adapted to this purpose, thus accounting for part of the single-engine fighter effort. A fair estimate of the number of aircraft so used is 60-70, giving a scale of about 30 sorties a day. There is no evidence of fighter-bomber activities by jet-propelled Me 262's.

Reconnaissance.--It is estimated that 5-10 reconnaissance sorties were flown daily over Holland, which can be considered a normal reaction. The main area of interest was along the Eindhoven-Nijmegen-Arnhem route, with some penetration into the rearward zones, the Beeringen bridgehead and southward.

Twin-engine fighters and bombers.--As expected, there were no operations by these types of aircraft by day.