Several of us have wrestled with the question of how much of our manpower resources are soaked up by our diverse military services. Army tables of establishment are readily available on line and easily rolled up. Springsharp provides us with crew numbers which form a good approximation of the overall size of naval forces. Air forces have been the element that has escaped us. Being the numbers person that I am, I found on line a
list of US Army Air Force TOEs that furnished me a place from which to start my own estimates. I'd like your opinions on what have calculated so far.
I have known the breakdown of equipment and air crews for the Luftwaffe for quite a long time, but the overall size of the Luftwaffe eluded me. My first approximations look like this.
If it is not immediately clear, I estimate that a full fighter wing - with 192 first line and 28 reserve aircraft, and air crews, together with the ground and first and second line maintenance staffs organic to the wing itself - would total 2,419 officer and other ranks, and average 11.0 personnel per aircraft.
For the sample bomber wing - with 108 first line and 15 reserve aircraft, and aircrews, with their ground staff - would number 3,444 officers and other ranks, and average 28 personnel per aircraft.
My question to the player base is - do you think this is the right order of magnitude, too little, or too much? I have adjusted the USAAF data to fit the number of aircraft operated by the Luftwaffe unit but it follows within reason the cited data; it may therefore be rich. Thoughts?