Trapani. Two were shot down. On 9 April III./ZG 1 claimed four US-flown Spitfires for two losses. Only one US Spitfire was shot down in air combat; the 2nd Squadron 52nd Fighter Group pilot survived. On 10 April ZG 1 lost one Bf 110 in a collision with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning form the US 82nd Fighter Group over Cape Bon while escorting Ju 52s. The Allied operation was a resounding success. 432 Axis aircraft were destroyed at a cost of 35 fighters. Coupled with the Stalingrad losses, the German air transport fleet never recovered from Flax. After the capitulation of the Panzer Army Africa on 13 May 1943, ZG 1 was sent to Germany for Reichsverteidigung, Defence of the Reich duties against the United States Army Air Force Eighth Air Force and Fifteenth Air Force in August 1943. The exception was III./ZG 1, which was sent to France. III./ZG 1 operated from France for two weeks with the new Messerschmitt Me 410 but soon departed for Germany. II./ZG 1 briefly replaced it. The group stayed for 10 weeks and lost 12 Bf 110s. In October 1943, I./ZG 1 was disbanded to become I./ZG 26. Some staffeln of the former I./ZG 1 was merged into V./KG 40 and subordinated to Fliegerführer Atlantik. The purpose of their transfer was to provide air cover for German U-boats as RAF Coastal Command intensified its anti-submarine warfare operations in the Bay of Biscay. Based at Bordeaux, ZG 1 conducted heavy fighter patrols with their newly arrived Junkers Ju 88C heavy fighters. They achieved 137 interceptions and claimed 69 aircraft shot down. The Luftwaffe's bid to protect U-boats over the Bay of Biscay in 1943 cost it 122 aircraft; 79 to enemy action including 48 Zerstörer. Coastal Command ended its 41-month offensive in the Bay in May 1944. It sank 50 U-Boats and lost 350 aircraft. ZG 1 suffered in the air battles. On 10 March 1944, for example, while escorting an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine it lost half its aircraft plus commanding officer Oberstleutnant Janson. In escorting U-225 a month later it lost seven Ju 88s and claimed four de Havilland Mosquitos. By the D-day landings ZG 1 had destroyed only 10 Coastal Command aircraft in 1944. U-boat crews accounted for 12. ZG 1 provided up to 24-strong formations of fighter escort for KG 26 anti-shipping aircraft in aerial attacks on ships, but this