About 20-30 crews from KG2, KG3 and KG53 had a special order. All of them had experince of blind flights. By the 3:00, when bombers were crossing border, they had 5700 meters altitude - maximum available. Their task was to strike three Soviet airfields far away behind lines exactly at 3:15, till that moment to stay undetected.

Unlike a year ago, when Western operation has started, this time “Zero” hour was set by the ground forces, not by the Luftwaffe. Ground forces wanted to attack with sunrise, but they wanted to be protected against enemy air forces. Luftwaffe was able to operate only when sun is up, so ground troops would have to wait.
So was found decision “in the middle” - several bombers crew in the dark has crossed the border, all other units has joined them later. The task was fullfilled completely - bomb strike was absolutely unexpected.

Totally it was 4 air fleets, alltogether they counted 1945 planes, 1280 of them were ready to fly. It were: 510 bombers, 290 dive bombers, 440 single-engine fighters and 40 twin-engines fighters, plus 120 longe-range recon planes.

After first wave returned from the bomb strike, second wave already took off. But this time Soviet fighters were ready and waiting. Though, Soviet I-15, I-153, I-16 wreren’t very competitive to the German aces.

As a result, 22nd of June was the biggest victory ever of one country’s airforces over other.
According to German combat log files by the end of that day it was destroyed 1811 Soviet aircraft, 322 of them were shot down by fighters and 1489 were destroyed on the ground. Luftwaffe lost 35 planes.

Goering didn’t beleive to these numbers and ordered to check them. Result was even more impressive - after inspectors has visited captured airbases, they’ve counted wrecks of more then 2000 planes.

It was rare case, when number of defeated planes was close to the reality. Soviet documents, collected after war, has showed, that by the 22nd of June noon Soviet Air Forces has lost about 1200 planes, 800 of them on the ground. On the territory of Western Command Luftwaffe has destroyed 528 aircrafts on the ground and 210 in the sky. It was the area where 2nd Air Fleet under the command of Albert Kesselring was acting. 2nd fleet consisted of II (commander Lertzer) and VII air corps (commander von Richthofen).

Kesselring has accomplished his mission - air superiority was achieved. From the second day of war on the Eastern battlefield Luftwaffe was only performing tactical tasks of ground troops support.

Source: Cajus Bekker “The Luftwaffe War Diaries”