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4. The Defiant Few
- University Press of Mississippi
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[ 40 ] THE DEFIANT FEW The fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe held their own against the western Allies for years, nearly always outnumbered and flying aircraft of increasingly vintage design. The Messerschmitt Bf 109 first flew in 1935, the Focke-Wulf 190 in 1939. By 1944, Allied air superiority had become intimidating to even the most hardened Luftwaffe veterans. Allied air forces swept before them anything the Luftwaffe managed to put up.The Jagdflieger couldn’t remember anymore when they had had enough fuel, spare parts, or well-trained replacements to make up for the steady attrition that sapped the morale of all but the most steely nerved.By the summer of 1944 the Jagdflieger were at the end of their ropes; fatalism took over when morale faltered. Then, suddenly, a jet fighter entered their inventory that was superior to anything the Allies could muster. For a brief defiant moment their spirits soared, if only to show the enemy that they still knew how to fly and fight if given first-rate equipment. For one last time the Jagdflieger rallied around their admired leader Adolf Galland. They were, Galland told them, the first and the last. The Me-262 jet fighter downed over the Zuider Zee on November 1, 1944, by a P-47 pilot of the 56th Fighter Group, belonged to a fledgling German jet squadron led by Major Walter Nowotny. Nowotny, a seasoned fighter pilot with 258 aerial victories to his credit, was killed one week later on November 8, by pursuing P-51 fighters while trying 4 The Defiant Few [ 41 ] to land his damaged jet at his home base of Achmer near Osnabrück. Nowotny was twenty-three years old when he died. Most fighter pilots, whether German, American, or British, were very young. Upon Nowotny’s death Jagdgeschwader 7, JG 7, Fighter Wing 7, was formed from the remnants of Nowotny’s group of Me-262 flyers. The Me-262 which shot down Charlie Johnson’s B-17 over Hamburg on the afternoon of March 20, 1945, with a salvo of twenty-four 50mm RLM 4 rockets belonged to JG 7. The 1st Air Division lost three B-17s to the German jets that March day over Hamburg, an insignificant number for a force of over three hundred bombers. But men like General Spaatz, the experienced and farsighted commander of the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe, saw the Me-262 and its futuristic rocket armament for what it truly represented—not the last gasp of a nearly defeated tyrant, but the tools of wars yet to come. The aggressive Jagdgeschwader 7 pilots were led briefly by Colonel Johannes Steinhoff, who had 176 aerial victories to his credit. In later years Steinhoff would rise to three-star rank as chief of staff of the reconstituted Luftwaffe of the Federal Republic of Germany. By the time of Charlie Johnson’s shoot-down, however, Colonel Steinhoff had joined the rebellious Adolf Galland, who was forming Jagdverband 44, JV 44,from one of the squadrons of JG 7 operating out of BrandenburgBriest airfield, north of Berlin. General Galland, the youthful onetime leader of Germany’s fighter forces, had the audacity to challenge Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, whom most thought a pompous and incompetent leader. Angered by Galland’s actions, Göring relieved Galland of command, charged him with mutiny, and attempted to put him before a Kriegsgericht, a military court, and have him shot. Göring, thwarted in his efforts by no less than the Führer himself, reluctantly let Galland off the hook and permitted him to form his own squadron of experts, JV 44. When word went out that Galland was forming his own squadron of Me-262 jets, many of Germany’s best pilots dropped whatever [3.89.200.155] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:23 GMT) The Defiant Few [ 42 ] they were doing and flew, drove, rode bicycles, or walked into Brandenburg-Briest to have the honor of flying with Adolf Galland. “From the Russian Front came Major Gerd Barkhorn, credited with 300 victories,” wrote Colonel Toliver. “Major Krupinski, the fabled “Count Punski” with 197 victories, was coaxed out of the hospital, as were Erich Hohagen and“Bubi”Schnell. Günter Lützow [103 victories] returned from exile in Italy, where he had been banished by Göring as one of Galland’s co-conspirators.”Galland himself requested the transfer of Hauptmann Erich Hartmann...