At the beginning of 1943, the Luftwaffe based in France had to occupy the whole of France following the invasion of the Free Zone at the end of 1942. A real headache for a local command forced to solve the squaring of the circle since having only an ethical number of air units and Flak (DCA)! The situation was to worsen with the deterioration of the Axis' military situation in the Mediterranean, France too often becoming a reservoir of men and devices from which one drew if necessary to reinforce Africa whatever the value. Greece and, finally, Italy.
One thousand nine hundred and forty-three also saw increasingly powerful raids launched on the continent by the American USAAF and its formidable four-engined aircraft. The day fighter, the Tagjagd, would thus gradually wear out, regularly losing aces whose disappearance could not be offset by the arrival of young aviators inexperienced and inexperienced.
By night, the RAF Bomber Command multiplied the intrusions, forcing the local command to develop the night fighter (Nachtjagd) which, until then, had remained somewhat embryonic.
Despite the efforts, few new units could be raised to strengthen the offensive and defensive potential of the German air force in occupied France. Thus, KG 6, formed from odds and ends in 1942, did not operate very much when leaving French territory, being called up in Italy or Denmark before being engaged on England in raids of very low strategic value.
Even the inevitable approach of an Allied invasion could not overturn the scales and the Normandy landings of June 6, 1944 and then that of Provence dealt a fatal blow to the Wehrmacht. By the end of August 1944, almost all Luftwaffe units had evacuated France.
Withdrawn in Germany, they carried out sporadic actions in French airspace, mainly in support of ground forces or purely in defense. On January 1, the Luftwaffe launched Operation "Bodenplatte" which was hardly successful.
The last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over France were the He 111s of the TG 30 which, until the end, supplied the pockets of the Atlantic in German hands at night, which did not surrender until May 8, 1945.
