Luftpost 10th March 1944
Title
Luftpost 10th March 1944
Description
German production of fighter aircraft is said to be down by a third due to the destruction of German factories in Germany and the occupied territories. Intensive allied air strikes have impacted German air defence, negating the claims by Goebbels that Allied air strikes had led to unsustainable losses.
The ratio of bombs being dropped is allegedly in favour of the Allies.
A series of “before” and “after” photographs show the impact of air strikes on Messerschmitt and Junkers factories.
The publication notes how the southern front has been using up reserves. Albert Kesselring’s reserves in Italy have shrunk from 18 divisions to six. Churchill had recently observed that the battle of attrition in Italy meant troops were not being used elsewhere in larger operations.
The First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander announced on 7 March that German U-boats only sank one in a thousand ships in the second half of 1943. Although the Germans apparently wish to reverse this situation, they are facing a large air offensive and potential invasion. Allied reserves and equipment no longer having to be shipped. It is claimed that Karl Dönitz will continue to sacrifice U-boats to protect his position.
A German mother wrote to her son, a prisoner of war from Tunis, after she spotted his photograph in a leaflet dropped in Germany in May and June 1943.
There is a report on the special military court hearing in Algiers for staff from the Colomb-Béchar concentration camp, including Germans and Italians, and officers. Sentences included death and life imprisonment. Their defence of following orders was not accepted. The camp was originally set up by the Vichy authorities before liberation.
The loss of Ukraine and its agriculture is likely to have a significant impact on German rations. German agricultural leaders are being transferred from Ukraine to develop agriculture in the Po Valley in Italy.
There are reports on a couple of judicial cases in Germany.
The Swiss newspaper, “Weltwoche”, points to other forces pitted against the Germans’ diminishing military and political powers. It feels intellectual forces can help the German people and observes increasing resistance to the occupying forces in Europe through saboteurs, partisans, assassinations etc.
On 22 February Churchill referred to Tito and his partisans who now number 250,000 men. They have inflicted significant losses on the Germans in Yugoslavia with weapons captured from the Germans and Italians. They are tying up 14 of the 20 German divisions in the Balkans.
Emmanuel d’Astier, former leader of the Resistance in Europe, gives a speech pointing to how it has grown in strength, number and impact despite the horrors unleashed on it by the Gestapo. A film about the “Maquis” was shown in London on the same night, smuggled out of France.
There is a general strike in the northern Italian industrial region which has met with considerable force from German troops. The workers are protesting against working in Germany in regions threatened by air strikes.
400 high ranking German officers were killed in Greece when Greek freedom fighters derailed their train.
The well-known actor, Luis Trenker, who appeared in several German films, has stated that he will not return to the Reich.
An article describes how the Russians have broken through in southern Ukraine, advancing along a 170-kilometre-wide front. They have cut off the Berlin-Odessa railway line, which is a main supply and retreat line. It is alleged that the German army’s precarious situation can ben traced back to an original strategic error by Hitler. Each withdrawal is losing resources for the war economy and has political implications. Any counteroffensive is gaining little ground at a high cost. The eighth army was encircled at Korsun with many casualties.
It is claimed that Léon Degrelle, the Belgian Rexist leader and a few hundred of his SS “Wallonia” brigade, were rescued from Korsun to organise a propaganda march across Brussels. This propaganda stunt took attention away from significant German losses.
The ratio of bombs being dropped is allegedly in favour of the Allies.
A series of “before” and “after” photographs show the impact of air strikes on Messerschmitt and Junkers factories.
The publication notes how the southern front has been using up reserves. Albert Kesselring’s reserves in Italy have shrunk from 18 divisions to six. Churchill had recently observed that the battle of attrition in Italy meant troops were not being used elsewhere in larger operations.
The First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander announced on 7 March that German U-boats only sank one in a thousand ships in the second half of 1943. Although the Germans apparently wish to reverse this situation, they are facing a large air offensive and potential invasion. Allied reserves and equipment no longer having to be shipped. It is claimed that Karl Dönitz will continue to sacrifice U-boats to protect his position.
A German mother wrote to her son, a prisoner of war from Tunis, after she spotted his photograph in a leaflet dropped in Germany in May and June 1943.
There is a report on the special military court hearing in Algiers for staff from the Colomb-Béchar concentration camp, including Germans and Italians, and officers. Sentences included death and life imprisonment. Their defence of following orders was not accepted. The camp was originally set up by the Vichy authorities before liberation.
The loss of Ukraine and its agriculture is likely to have a significant impact on German rations. German agricultural leaders are being transferred from Ukraine to develop agriculture in the Po Valley in Italy.
There are reports on a couple of judicial cases in Germany.
The Swiss newspaper, “Weltwoche”, points to other forces pitted against the Germans’ diminishing military and political powers. It feels intellectual forces can help the German people and observes increasing resistance to the occupying forces in Europe through saboteurs, partisans, assassinations etc.
On 22 February Churchill referred to Tito and his partisans who now number 250,000 men. They have inflicted significant losses on the Germans in Yugoslavia with weapons captured from the Germans and Italians. They are tying up 14 of the 20 German divisions in the Balkans.
Emmanuel d’Astier, former leader of the Resistance in Europe, gives a speech pointing to how it has grown in strength, number and impact despite the horrors unleashed on it by the Gestapo. A film about the “Maquis” was shown in London on the same night, smuggled out of France.
There is a general strike in the northern Italian industrial region which has met with considerable force from German troops. The workers are protesting against working in Germany in regions threatened by air strikes.
400 high ranking German officers were killed in Greece when Greek freedom fighters derailed their train.
The well-known actor, Luis Trenker, who appeared in several German films, has stated that he will not return to the Reich.
An article describes how the Russians have broken through in southern Ukraine, advancing along a 170-kilometre-wide front. They have cut off the Berlin-Odessa railway line, which is a main supply and retreat line. It is alleged that the German army’s precarious situation can ben traced back to an original strategic error by Hitler. Each withdrawal is losing resources for the war economy and has political implications. Any counteroffensive is gaining little ground at a high cost. The eighth army was encircled at Korsun with many casualties.
It is claimed that Léon Degrelle, the Belgian Rexist leader and a few hundred of his SS “Wallonia” brigade, were rescued from Korsun to organise a propaganda march across Brussels. This propaganda stunt took attention away from significant German losses.
Date
1944-03-10
Spatial Coverage
Language
Type
Format
Two double sided printed sheets
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
MFiskertonMem-190219-020001, MFiskertonMem-190219-020002, MFiskertonMem-190219-020003, MFiskertonMem-190219-020004
Collection
Citation
“Luftpost 10th March 1944,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 7, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/48037.