Aviation Elite Jagdgeschwader 52 The Experten Osprey Books

Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) was the most successful and highest-scoring fighter unit, not just in Germanys World War 2 Luftwaffe, but in the entire annals of aviation history. No other fighter group of any nation, in any war, has come close to its staggering total of some 9000 enemy aircraft shot down in combat. And yet, because much of that combat was fought over the tractless wastes of the Russian front, very little has been published in English about this charismatic unit, whose members include the three top-scoring fighter aces of all time (who alone claimed over 900 victories between them). In fact, as far as the writer is aware, this volume would present the first concise history of JG 52 in any language. To be strictly accurate, Overview would be a better word to use than history, for most of the units own records were lost or destroyed at the end of the war when, after surrendering to US forces in Czechoslovakia, most of JG 52s personnel - pilots and ground crew alike - were immediately handed over to the Russians. Although a completely definitive and fully detailed unit history is, therefore, unlikely ever to be produced, enough material has survived, or has appeared post-war - in the form of official documentation, campaign histories, biographies and the personal reminiscences of survivors- to provide a factual and human narrative of JG 521s wartime career.