Dive Bombers Units

From the spring of 1939 the new code letter system for Kampfverbänden was introduced. The combination of numbers and letters in front of the side cross indicated the appropriate unit to which a particular machine belonged.

During the first 24 hours of operation Overlord (from 21.00 5. June 1944 to 6. June), the Normandy landings, the aircraft of the USAAF and the RAF made a total of 25.275 sorties, of which 15 004 accounted for the direct support of the ongoing invasion. Only thing the all-powerful Luftwaffe was able to do during the first 24 hours of the landing was only 319 sorties carried out by aircraft of Luftflotte 3. In addition, only a smaller part of them was directed directly over the invasion beaches.