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JG 51 is one of the Luftwaffe's top wartime fighter units whose story has never been told in English. The unit's history encapsulates the fortunes of the Luftwaffe's fighter arm as a whole: the heady successes of the early months, the steady attrition and the growing strength of the opposition during the mid-war years, and the final chaos and collapse of the last days. The story works on other levels too: the diversity of aircraft types flown - biplanes, Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf fighters, and even...

By August 1916, the German Air Service was fighting a losing struggle in the skies over the Battle of the Somme. Royal Flying Corps aircraft reigned almost supreme over the battlefront, and the vaunted Fokker monoplanes had been hounded from the air. In response, an entirely new type of fighting formation came into being - the Jagdstaffel, which was a unit designed solely as a fighting squadron. One of the first, and undoubtedly the most famous, was Jasta 2, formed and led by Germany's premiere fighter ace Oswald Boelcke. Renamed Jasta "Boelcke" by Imperial Decree, the unit would carry its...

Arguably the archetypal Luftwaffe fighter unit of World War 2, JG 53 aircraft were encountered on almost every fighting front from the first day of hostilities until the last. Its famous and familiar "Ace of Spades" unit emblem, which was displayed throughout the war, has, in effect, become visual shorthand for the wartime German fighter arm, being seen on die-cast models, prints, illustrations and book covers the world over. During almost six years of near constant campaigning, JG 53 took a steady toll of Allied aircraft - French, British, Soviet and American - in every theater it fought...

Jagdverband 44 was formed in February 1945 on Hitler's orders, to fly the Me 262 "Stormbird," the world's first operational jet fighter, and demonstrate its superiority. The unit was led by the legendary Adolf Galland, who recruited some of Germany's leading aces into it, to the extent that it was said that the Knight's Cross was its unofficial badge. JV 44 engaged the US Ninth Army Air Force over Bavaria and, with its significant speed advantage and powerful armament of cannon and rockets, the Me 262 proved a formidable interceptor in the hands of its expert pilots. In its brief...

When the revolutionary Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter first appeared in the skies over northwest Europe in mid-1944, it represented the greatest challenge to Allied air superiority since the Battle of Britain. The first group to solely fly jet fighters, Jagdgeschwader 7 was formed out of the test unit Kommando Nowotny, and was tasked with taking back command of the skies. Put almost immediately into action, despite fuel shortages, poor training and problems with the jet engine, victories quickly followed against both US and British aircraft, including at least one Mosquito.

By the...

Formed around a nucleus of pilots already seasoned by their experience as volunteers in the RAF's Eagle Squadrons, the 4th Fighter Group was established in England in October 1942. Initially flying Spitfires, the Debden Eagles went on to fly the P-47 and P-51, becoming in July 1943, the first Eighth Air Force fighter group to penetrate German air space. The group's record of 583 air and 469 ground victories was unmatched in the Eighth Air Force, and the group produced a cast of characters that included legendary aces Don Blakeslee, Pierce McKennon, 'Kid' Hofer, Duane Beeson, Steve Pisanos...

The success of No 126 Wing began before the D-Day landings, but its phenomenal performance after the Normandy invasion has no simple explanation. True, it profited from being in all the right places at all the right moments during the war - D-Day and the breakout, Falaise Gap, Operation Market Garden, the winter offensive in the Ardennes, and crossing the Rhine into Germany. But other wings with 2nd TAF participated in the same operations, without achieving nearly the same success as No 126.

As a self-contained unit, the five squadrons of Spitfires of No 126 Wing were...

Fighting Squadron 11 was established at San Diego in August 1943, beginning a half-century record that spanned aerial combat in three wars from the piston to the jet age. First deployed to Guadalcanal, the 'Sundowners' flew Grumman Wildcats and completed its tour as the Navy's third-ranking F4F squadron in terms of aerial victories.

Upon returning home, the 'Sundowners' transitioned to Hellcats in preparation for a second combat deployment. In 1944-45 the squadron flew from USS Hornet (CV-12), participating in the fast carrier strikes against the Philippines, Formosa and the Asian...