JG-3 was one of those units that flew from the beginning of the Luftwaffe until the end of the war. Starting out as JG 232, it became JG 137 and though split up to start various other units, ended up being JG 3 by the time that WWII was underway. The war started with the unit cooling its heels in Germany as an air defense unit, something that it would pretty much continue to do until the end of the war.

It was able to get into combat during the French campaign with a great deal of success before being withdrawn back to Germany. It was also able to get some more combat during the Battle of Britain. After that, it spent time being shuttled back and forth between Germany and the Channel coast. When Operation Barbarossa began, JG 3 was involved, but did not stay in the East as did so many other Luftwaffe units, though some of the units in JG 3 did venture back into Russia as the need arose. There was an interlude into the Mediterranean before it returned to France and Germany for what was its main function during most of the war, which was home defense.

This began in earnest when the USAAF started sending in bombing raids. At first, things went quite well for JG 3 as they still had a cadre of experienced aces and the American bombers were still unescorted. The addition of long range escorts made things much more difficult for JG 3 and after the loss of so many experienced pilots, the situation got only worse.

The Geschwader was one of those who spent most of the war flying the Bf-109 in different variants. Though the FW-190 was used by some portions of the geschwader, it did not totally take over. After the death of Udet, JG 3 took his name to go along with the geschwader. It is somewhat ironic that a fighter unit would take the name of a major influence in dive bombing while a dive bombing unit 'Immelman' would take the name of a fighter pilot.

In line with other books in this series, there are a ton of well done period photographs as well as the usual large center section of full color profiles of the planes that were flown by the unit during the war. There are many names which enthusiasts will recognize such as Lutzow, Gollob, Dahl and others. We get many of their mission stories to spice things up, one of the major attractions of this series. In the appendices is a listing of aces that flew with JG 3 and their scores, as well as those who earned the Knights Cross. An excellent read and a great reference book. Pick it up when you see it.

January 2014

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