Exercises at Cazaux

Exercises at Cazaux: 25–30 April 1944

25 April	9 Fw 190	0830	Cazaux	point over sea, 85 km W Arcachon

	several Fw 190	1240	?	(ditto) 39 km SW Arcachon
	several Fw 190	1300	Cazaux	85 km W Arcachon, and “air firing at sea targets South of the airfield”
26 April	7–9 Fw 190	0600	Biarritz	flight 30 km out over sea at 5 m altitude

	10 Fw 190	0840	?	point over sea, 132 km W Bordeaux
	several Fw 190	1230	?	low-level flight out to sea
27 April	4 Bf 109	0650	Biarritz	high-altitude flight

	10 Fw 190	0850	Cazaux	scramble
	5 Fw 190	1250	Biarritz	low-level flight out to sea
28 April	10 Fw 190	a.m.	Cazaux	point over sea, 132 km W Bordeaux

	8 Fw 190	p.m.	Cazaux	point over sea, 132 km W Bordeaux
29 April	6 Fw 190	0830	Cazaux	exercise over sea, 132 km W Bordeaux

	8 Fw 190	p.m.	?	out low over Biarritz to seaward, returning to Mont de Marsan
30 April	Fw 190s	?	?	expected Cap Ferret “in connexion with the firing of mortar shells”

Activity picked up by Allied Signals Intelligence.

On 1 May British Intelligence would note that:

Fw 190s which have been exercising in the Cazaux area … are known to have included a/c of I./JG 26. A/c were transferred back to Lille-Vendeville on 30/4.

NOTE: Donald Caldwell describes I./JG 26’s time at Cazaux as a rest period but this evidently was not the case for everyone there at the time. In his assessment of the Invasion period, II. Jagdkorps’ Chief of Staff wrote that both JG 2 and JG 26 had been worn down by continual operations and that therefore:

… at the end of April the commanding general decided in spite of the urgent situation to move one Gruppe from each Geschwader to the Bordeaux area. There enough undisturbed training could actually take place in time, so that both Gruppen were brought North in a good state at dawn on 6 June and deployed in the invasion battle then commencing.