Gordon Gollob: The Truth?

[Kurt Braatz]

One possible and sobering truth about JV 44 is, in my opinion, that it soaked up the Luftwaffe's most experienced unit leaders for the joy of serving directly under Gallands command, flying jets and boozing - while Galland's successor stood there empty-handed and 19 year old rookies in the front line units had to die due to inferior leadership til VE day. Gollob put it this way in the 'Jaegerblatt', when Steinhoff published his book on the so-called mutiny of aces in the early 1970s. I am not a fan of Gollob at all, but this perspective made me think.

[mars]

Originally Posted by Kurt Braatz

One possible and sobering truth about JV 44 is, in my opinion, that it soaked up the Luftwaffe's most experienced unit leaders for the joy of serving directly under Gallands command, flying jets and boozing - while Galland's successor stood there empty-handed and 19 year old rookies in the front line units had to die due to inferior leadership til VE day. Gollob put it this way in the 'Jaegerblatt', when Steinhoff published his book on the so-called mutiny of aces in the early 1970s. I am not a fan of Gollob at all, but this perspective made me think.

The problem was there was not many "Luftwaffe's most experienced unit leaders" in JV44, JV44 was buit by Luftwaffe aces who was burned out long time ago, experience pilots recovered from hospital and many rookies