second new title self-published by author Erik Mombeeck, translation by Neil Page. US distribution via http://www.luftwaffe.be The fourth fighter wing of the Luftwaffe was initially established during 1942 and committed to operations in defence of the Rumanian oil fields during 1943. I./JG 4 first saw action in combat against a strike force of B-24 Liberators dispatched on the celebrated low level attack against Ploesti on 1 August 1943, Operation “Tidal Wave”. JG 4 was subsequently deployed in the bitterly fought German defensive campaign on the Italian peninsula during the first half of 1944, prior to being shifted to the Normandy invasion front and then falling back to the frontiers of the Reich in September that year. It was during the summer of 1944 that JG 4 underwent considerable reinforcement with two new Gruppen swelling its ranks. The most effective of these was II. (Sturm)/JG 4, a so-called “Storm” or "assault" wing, built up around a hard core of former Sturmstaffel 1 pilots and an intake of young daredevil volunteers. Committed against the massive USAF bomber fleets pounding the Reich, these German "kamikaze" fighters, as some saw them, were deployed to bring down the American bombers by any means, including ramming if all else failed... Despite the appalling losses sustained by JG 4 during WW II, the author managed to locate around one hundred JG 4 and Sturmstaffel 1 veterans and their personal accounts and photographs bring this history vividly to life. The first volume of this two part history covers the unit’s establishment, deployments and combat actions through to autumn 1944, providing for the first time in English a day-by-day, mission-by-mission study of the Luftwaffe’s 4th fighter wing.
Gents: I can attest at least for the first - German version this is a must have title if one wants to further their study of the Defence of the Reich from the outset defending the Ploesti oil fields to the development of the Sturmgruppe with heavy Fw 190A-8s defending Germany and the hopelessness of Reich defence agasint superior odds but nonetheless furthering their duty as ordered. Great book thanks for posting friend and much success !
European sales direct via the author at Luftwaffe Fighter Pilots ..and thanks for the support Erich! If enough invest in this one, then hopefully Vol II will appear, easily one of my faves..one of the first Luftwaffe unit histories to detail -among others - the pilots involvement in ground actions on the Eastern Front in front of Berlin !
