Thinking of the Jagdwaffe (West) circa January, 1944

[Larry deZeng]

Over on AHF just a week ago there was a thread about "survival" attitudes among Luftwaffe fighter pilots during the last year of the war. According to after action reports, diaries and postwar interviews with American fighter pilots, "it was not uncommon" for Luftwaffe fighter pilots to bale out as soon as an enemy fighter got on their tail. Although there were a few cases of this, I think all of us know that this was not "common" practice. Most of the pilots, especially the new ones, were far more afraid of what would happen to them if they refused combat and got caught. Morale in the Jagdwaffe stayed pretty high right to the end of the war. But it was mainly loyalty to their unit and Kamaraden rather than to A.H. or Fatboy Hermann that kept them fighting.