The Luftwaffe Fighter Force: The View from the Cockpit

By Adolf Galland and David C. Isby

The Luftwaffe was the official Nazi air force during World War II and The Luftwaffe Fighter Force features thirty-four accounts of its missions given by pilots and members of its flight crews. Stories included give a rarely heard perspective on the war and Luftwaffe members are frank in revealing the difficulties they encountered and what they believe led to their downfall.

The Luftwaffe pilot and crew members featured in this unusual collection divulge what was once highly-confidential information, including fighter tactics, aircraft technology and operations, how they received their commands, and what the chain in carrying out their orders was. Also included are thirty rarely seen photographs and five maps and diagrams. Images feature things such as uniformed Luftwaffe officers, close-up shots of fighter planes, and the boundaries the planes were authorized to carry out their missions in.

This unique volume was compiled by acclaimed military historian David C. Isby and is extraordinarily comprehensive. To make it, Isby poured over accounts of the war given by members of the Luftwaffe shortly after the events they describe. Much of the information in the book has been shared for the first time within it, and after a limited print run nearly twenty years ago, is finally, seventy years after the Luftwaffe missions, finally back in print.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Release date: Aug 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781510703674

Book preview

Part 1

The Fighter Force

The chapters in this section, written primarily by Galland, are his account of how he saw the Luftwaffe fighter force organization change from his prewar service to the last battles. In this way, as well as setting out the different organizational terms and levels used in the other chapters, they also function as an overview of the entire conflict. They also include a focus on the twin-engine fighter force throughout the conflict and how it overcame its defeat in the Battle of Britain to become a key part of the Luftwaffe’s defensive efforts. However, because these interrogations are being carried out for the benefit of the USAAF rather than the RAF, night fighter operations are not emphasized.

CHAPTER 1

History and Developments of GAF Fighter Commands

Interrogation of Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Generalfeldmarschall Milch

At Kaufbeuren, Germany, 1–4 September 1945

Before the War

When fighter units were set up in 1935–36 they came under the Luftgau for purposes of administration, supply, and operations. The emphasis on defense in organization at the time was due, in Galland’s opinion, to the fear in Germany that other lands might take military action to interfere with her rearmament program. Since no operations took place in this period, it is impossible to judge the rectitude of the idea of having the fighter units controlled by geographical commands, the Luftgau.

The Spanish Civil War, Poland and France

Germany’s fighter superiority, proved in the Spanish War and corroborated by intelligence reports, led to a much more aggressive type of organization shortly before the Sudetenland incident. All the fighter units were taken from the Luftgau and put under the Fliegerkorps (and the one Nahkampfkorps VIII under Richthofen). Those Fliegerkorps controlled all kinds of flying units. One Gruppe of J.G. 1 stayed under the control of a Luftgau on the Frisian Coast, but all the other Luftgau had no more to do with the fighter units operationally, except for control of the home bases of the various units where a small detail of men from each Gruppe stayed behind to keep contact with home matters and do housekeeping.

The organization of the Fliegerkorps was very flexible. Each was headed by a General, usually a veteran of World War I who had a younger General Staff Officer as his Chief of Staff. Fighter Geschwader under a Korps might take their operational orders directly from the Korps Staff Operations Section, which also gave out orders to all the bomber, recce, ground attack, and dive-bomber units under the Korps. In some Korps a Fliegerfuhrer (operational command) might be set up to control all the fighters, or all the bombers, and so on. This officer was often merely the senior Geschwader Kommodore of the Geschwader in the Korps, and therefore had no elaborate staff. His function was merely to implement the general battle missions passed down to him by Korps.

In some cases the Korps had under it a number of Fliegerdivisionen each with bombers, fighters and other types under it. Each division had a large staff and simply relieved the Korps of the burden of detailed work. In all these organizational set-ups, supply and repair units were controlled by the Luftgau, which merely expanded their boundaries to take in any new territories which Germany overran.

This type of organization with Fliegerkorps, Fliegerdivisionen, and Fliegerfuhrer controlling at different levels of command all different types of units, without separating the control of fighters from bombers and so on, was continued in the West until the end of the French campaign in Summer 1940 and in Russia until 1944. The great evolutionary changes in fighter command organization took place in the West and in Germany itself from Fall of 1940 up to the end of the War. Russian front organization remained fairly static because the role of the Luftwaffe there as a ground support arm did not change much through the war.

The West – The Battle of Britain and 1941

After the campaign in France, the Luftwaffe forces in France arrayed against England were under Luftflotte 2 and Luftflotte 3. Luftflotte 2 had under it Fliegerkorps II, and Luftflotte 3 had Fliegerkorps VIII and IX. There were no Division headquarters at the time in France.

The great fighter activity of the Battle of Britain soon necessitated the setting-up of specialized Fighter Commands under the two Luftflotten. In August 1940 Jagdfliegerfuhrer 2 was set up under Fliegerkorps II and Jagdfliegerfuhrer 3 was set up under Fliegerkorps VIII. (Note that each Jagdfliegerfuhrer was numbered after the Luftflotte which it came under, though this was not a general rule.) (Jagdfliegerfuhrer means fighter leader and is usually abbreviated Jafu; this abbreviation will be used throughout this report.)

The main reason for setting up the Jafu at this time was that fighter operations were becoming so important and complicated that special operational staff work was required. Each Fliegerkorps found it more simple to give orders to its Jafu. During the Battle of Britain there was no Jafu control of fighter units after take-off, because the GAF had at that time no radar that could observe fighter action over England. Instead, the Jafu busied themselves planning the missions, consulting frequently with the Geschwader COs, and developing the signals network which later became the skeleton of the reporting and radar systems in France and the low countries. They reported directly to the Korps and had considerable operational freedom. Usually they were informed of the time when German bombers were to be over the target and were told to provide fighter escort.

In 1941 the fighter force in the West went on the defensive. When the Russian campaign began in June all the Geschwader (except J.G. 2 and J.G. 26) went to the Russian Front. Luftflotte 2 (with its Fliegerkorps II) left France and went to the Eastern front. Fliegerkorps VIII with its fighters left the domain of Luftflotte 3 and also went to the East. Luftflotte 3 now took over command authority over those parts of France and the low countries which had belonged to Luftflotte 2.

That left in the West Fliegerkorps IX which had mostly bombers and no fighters under it. The bombers of Fliegerkorps IX were at this time engaged mainly in night operations where they needed no fighters. Jafu 2 and 3 remained, Jafu 2 now coming under the domain of Luftflotte 3. Since the old Fliegerkorps II and VIII to which they had been subordinated were now in the East and since the one remaining Fliegerkorps in the West, IX, was flying night operations, the two Jafus had no headquarters over them except Luftflotte 3 itself. Jafu 2 controlled J.G. 26, and Jafu 3 controlled J.G. 2. The Jafu continued their signals development work.

In mid-1941 another step in development was taken. The Jafu headquarters began to control the fighters, rather than the headquarters of the individual Geschwader. Ground control intercept radar and a radio Listening Service were now functioning, and fighter control in the air by the Jafu was a reality.

Each Jafu sent a representative to the Geschwader Hq. to work with the Geschwader Kommodore in directing operations. By Autumn 1941, however, it was seen that this practice prevented the Kommodore from leading his unit in combat; so it was discontinued. Control of fighters was exercised directly from the Jafu headquarters.

The Organizing of the Jagddivisionen and Jagdkorps

Up until the latter months in 1941 the largest unit of command for fighters was the Jafu. English night bombing operations over Northwestern Germany had developed to such a point that German night fighter forces had to be considerably enlarged. Fliegerkorps XII under Kammhuber controlled almost all of the night fighters, which were located in Holland, Belgium, and N.W. Germany. Fliegerkorps XII developed, for its night fighting, a fine signals and radar network, which became the finest in Europe. In the Fall of 1942, when the first American daylight raids penetrated into Germany and the Low Countries, Fliegerkorps XII organized a Jafu Holland-Ruhrgebiet as well as continuing the night fighter control work.

The setting-up of other Jagddivisionen continued into 1943 until almost all German fighter units in France, the Low Countries, Germany and Austria came under one of them. J.D. 2 was set up in the Bremen vicinity and J.D. 3 at Berlin. Later the numbering was changed and J.D. 1 and J.D. 3 exchanged numbers. Jafu 2 in France became J.D. 4 and Jafu 3 became J.D. 5. The number 6 was left vacant for a J.D. which was to be set up in Southern France, but never was. J.D. 7 was set up in the Munich vicinity and J.D. 8 was later set up with its headquarters in Vienna.

The fighter units on the Russian front stayed under the control of the simple Fliegerdivisionen and Fliegerkorps until 1944. German fighters in Norway, Italy, Africa, the Balkans and other outlying areas were controlled by newly created Jafu headquarters.

The Jagddivisionen based in the western part of Germany and in France were under another type of unit, the Jagdkorps (fighter corps), corresponding to the Fliegerkorps. Jagdkorps II was initiated to control the Jagddivisionen under Luftflotte 3 and Jagdkorps I was formed from Kammhuber’s old Fliegerkorps XII, in Germany. It was planned as well to set up a Jagdkorps III for southern Germany but the strength of the fighters there was always too small to warrant it. These Jagdkorps exercised the necessary coordinating functions in the employment of the now much expanded fighter force. The Jagddivisionen were principally interested in the operational functions which involved directing the Geschwader in the air. Matters of policy and supervision had to be left to the higher unit, the Jagdkorps.

By this time the four Luftflotten which had formerly divided Germany between them had now moved into occupied countries to keep up with the fronts, leaving the administration of the Defense of the Reich to the newly created Luftwaffenbefehlshaber Mitte (GAF Commander for the Middle Area), which was renamed Luftflotte Reich. Jagdkorps I therefore came under Luftflotte Reich, while Jagdkorps II came under Luftflotte III now situated in France and the Low Countries.

Each Jagddivision was a definitely bounded geographical area, although boundaries were changed from time to time. All units based in the area of the Jagddivision were responsible to it for operational purposes. This included day fighter, Zerstorer and night fighters. The Division could actually control its Geschwader when they passed beyond its borders during a mission, but on occasions where either the fighters themselves or the enemy forces were outside the range of the Division’s radar and R/T, control of the units would, on the Jagdkorps order, be passed over to another Division which was still in touch with the whole situation. This change-over was never accomplished without great difficulty and confusion and was one of the main weaknesses of the Division system. The difficulty arose from the simple physical complexity of the task of establishing communications with all of the units and overloading the staffs of those Divisions which usually had the burden of suddenly assuming operations thrown onto