Jagdverband 44

He was told to form a new combat unit, equipped entirely with a 262, staffed entirely by volunteers, and operate it as he saw fit.

He called it Jagdverband 44, Fighter Unit 44.

The unofficial nickname was the Squadron of Experts, and the name was not an exaggeration.

Galland assembled men with hundreds of aerial kills between them, men who had flown over every theater of the European war, men like Johannes Steinhoff, who would survive the war badly burned after a 262 crash on takeoff, spend years in hospital, and go on to help rebuild the post-war German Air Force.

Sources for today's story include Adolf Galland's own memoir, The First and the Last, which is essential reading for anyone interested in the Luftwaffe.

Jeffrey Ethel and Alfred Price wrote the definitive account of early jet combat in World War II fighting jets.

And John Foreman and S.E. Harvey's research into Jagdverband 44 fills in the final chapter.

Find more at RadioHangar.com. I'm Tail Dragger.