In early 1943, 59 percent of German fighters were in the Western theater facing the bombing; in January 1944, 68 percent; by October 1944, 81 percent. At the beginning of 1944 German aircraft available on the Soviet front were little more than the number a year before, in the Mediterranean theater they were 40 percent fewer, but in defense of Germany the number increased by 82 percent. The same was true for the distribution of antiaircraft guns: in the summer of 1944 there were 2,172 batteries of light and heavy antiaircraft artillery on the home front, but only 443 batteries in the
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