Author(s): Peter Jacobs

Overseas Military

The air battles of the Second World War were fought ferociously and with extraordinary skill and courage on both fronts. The fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe, the jagdfliegern, in fact outscored their Allied counterparts by some margin and were some of the highest scoring fighter pilots of all time. More than a hundred recorded a century of aerial successes with two going on to surpass a quite astonishing 300 victories. In the end, the vast effort required by the Luftwaffe to maintain the air war on so many fronts proved too much and few jagdfliegern survived the last days of the Reich but their courage and ability was beyond question, and the names of some will live on in the annals of air warfare with their extraordinary achievements never to be surpassed. In Luftwaffe Fighter Aces, Peter Jacobs examines the many campaigns fought by the Luftwaffe from its fledgling days during the Spanish Civil War to its last days defending the Reich, and includes the exploits of Erich Hartmann, the highest scoring fighter pilot of all time, Hans-Joachim Marseille, the Star of Africa, Werner Molders, the first recipient of the Diamonds, and Adolf Galland, perhaps the most famous of all.