[Leo Etgen]

Hello Larry

Of course loyalty to their comrades was a factor as well a sense of duty and a desire to defend their homeland and its people in addition to those that I listed in my previous post. However, there were other factors involved. Caldwell and Muller note that studies on the morale of the German military demonstrate that such remain high even though normal primary group cohesion was destroyed by the high casualty rates suffered in the last years of the war. They also mention that interrogation reports from captured German pilots indicated not only good morale even after D-Day and the willingness to obey orders and join combat even though they were fully aware of the odds against them but also a certain distrust among them regarding their comrades. The more experienced pilots felt that newcomers were not as capable as their predecessors and for their part the more recent pilots felt a certain lack of confidence in their leaders due to the shortage of section, flight and squadron commanders. Therefore, there was a certain lack in mutual confidence among the members of a unit caused mainly by the high losses suffered. One unit that comes to mind that exhibited a marked case of the above was III./JG 26 where there was considerable distrust among the enlisted men and their officers to the point that the former did not invite any of the latter to their post-war reunions if I am remembering correctly.

Horrido!

Leo