Gordon Gollob: The Truth?

[Dénes Bernád]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

...there is a story of JV44 going under SS command.

I never hear of a fighter unit being under SS command. This sounds to me like a legend.

[Franek Grabowski]

Originally Posted by Dénes Bernád

I never hear of a fighter unit being under SS command. This sounds to me like a legend.

I think it was discussed in Classic's JV44 book. IIRC There were some problems with the Luftwaffe command, so there were some attempts to make the unit independent by changing supervisors. Possibly Steinhoff played a role.

[DunkBM]

He certainly looks like a piece of work in that photo though.....look at the face!! Galland seems more like a Bader type - bit of a showman...?

[Robert Forsyth]

From what I could work out and discover over the years - three things:

1. Galland didn't have much choice. The 'Big Man' told him to go away and form his own unit. Under exactly what circumstances he ended up with Me 262s is actually not that clear. However, why he wasn't packed off to the Eastern Front is not clear either. I suppose the daylight defence of southern Germany was quite pressing!

2. Gollob picked up a poisoned chalice. I would imagine Galland was glad to be out of it.

3. In fact there were very few 'rookies' in JV 44. Most of the pilots (apart from a hand-picked clique of combat strained unit commanders) were very capable instructors from the training schools - mostly NCOs many of whom had also seen service at the front.

Robert Forsyth

[kb]

Speaking of "personalities", Steinhoff seems to have had a bit of one himself. IIRC more than a few Experten had difficulty when under his command.