The Day the Luftwaffe Lost Everything

This covers Ed Cottrell’s brutal experience on January 1, 1945, which the Germans would call “Operation Bodenplatte.” Cottrell would eventually witness the strafing attack of Me-109s and Fw-190s at an airfield in St. Trond, Belgium. It would be a battle the 48th Fighter Group would never forget, leading to carnage, destruction, and the brutal loss of many young pilots.

A Top Secret Mission

Little did the Allies that the German Luftwaffe was planning a top-secret mission, and it was supposed to be a maximum effort for them, using every available aircraft in the region with the hope of crippling American air operations in the areas of Belgium and France. The plan was conceived weeks prior and was supposed to happen during mid-December.

However, poor weather postponed the attack. The mission’s specific targets were several American and British airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France where Luftwaffe pilots were assigned to destroy airstrips, aircraft, and hangers to disrupt the overpowering air supremacy of the Allies and hopefully give German forces a fighting chance on the ground.

Despite pilot shortages, Operation Bodenplattewas given the green light even though the pilots that they sent were unqualified for combat for a high-risk assignment.

A German Pilot’s Perspective

At approximately 8:20 am, the Me-109 pilot of the JG4 Lothar Wolff’’s entire unit awoke, dressed their best before climbing into their planes. Their unit took the air, following their guide plane. Because of a poorly planned flight path, German pilots found themselves flying directly over their own anti-aircraft positions, and fired upon their own planes, with almost one-quarter of German units taking friendly fire. They would then pass American anti-aircraft guns on the way to their target.  

Interestingly, their target for the Bodenplattemission was an American airfield in Le Culot. However, because of the complications for the day and the loss of their lead plane, the JG4 would end up off course.

At 9:30 am, the 109s and the 190s spotted what they believed was Le Culot but in reality was St. Tron, home of the 48th and 404thfighter groups, which looked similar and was a couple of miles away.

Losing Everything

In the first pass, the airfield at St. Tron quickly became chaos. Very quickly, however, American gunners began to respond with deadly results. Witnesses reported that many of the German pilots failed to drop their tanks, flew too slow or too high, or that their aim was very poor, clear evidence of their poor training.

Several German aircraft were shot in a very short period. In a few minutes, nearly all of the attacking Luftwaffe aircraft would be shot down. Only two of the original 16 aircraft sent out from this unit of JG4 would survive the attack one had to crash land, leaving only Lt. Lothar Wolf, to make it back home to his home air base. He was the only pilot to return.

The Luftwaffe took massive losses all across the front with 143 pilots listed as killed or missing. Bodenplatte weakened the Luftwaffe without any hope of rebuilding. From here to the end of the war, German air power would be but a shadow of her former self.