Caldwell, Donald. The JG 26 War Diary, volume two: 1943-1945. London: Grub Street, 1998

ISBN 1-898697-86-8
576 pages

Preface; Acknowledgements; maps; photos; tables; Glossaries; Sources; Index.

Appendices: Organization and Strength, 1943-1945; Unit Commanders, 1943-1945; Bases, 1943-1945; Victory Claims, 1939-1945; Casualties, 1939-1945

When volume one of The JG 26 War Diary was published in 1996, it gained a considerable amount of popular success and critical praise, including a very favorable review at this website. We're pleased to report that the second volume we were looking forward to two years ago has now arrived and it's even better than the first.

Because only two of thirty or forty volumes of the Jagdgeschwader's official war diaries survived the war, Caldwell has been required to do an enormous amount of research to produce his books. While access to the original records might have eased the task and might have answered a few nagging questions that aging memories can't quite resolve, a book based on the wartime diaries probably would have ended up being an entirely different sort of product. In the long run -- given Caldwell's willingness to do the digging, the variety of alternative resources available to him (including Allied records and post-war archives), and the veterans who offered their stories to him -- we are probably better served by the excellent results of Caldwell's long, hard effort to weave together all these threads from such a wide variety of sources.

When volume one concluded with the end of 1942, the Geschwader's Bf 109G-equipped Staffel, 11(Hohen)/JG 26, had been dispatched to Tunisia in November and destroyed in December, its survivors dispersed among II/JG 51. The remainder of the Geschwader remained along the northern coast of France, patrolling the Channel, intercepting enemy aircraft, and flying "terror missions" against southern England. Although outnumbered by the growing strength of Allied fighters and bombers, JG 26 continued to dominate its airspace with veteran pilots, familiar aircraft, and proven tactics.

Given the transfer of Allied flying resources to the new theater in French North Africa, a brief lull ensued at the new year in northern France. As the year progressed, however, it became increasingly clear that both quantity and quality of enemy aircraft and pilots was on the rise, while replacement Luftwaffe pilots proved to be less and less thoroughly trained. These unprepared rookies seldom survived their first few missions, leaving a dwindling cadre of veterans to carry on the battle. By the time of the Normandy invasion, JG 26 and its sister units were thoroughly out-gunned, and the situation did not improve afterwards. Despite the impossible odds, war's end found the remnants of JG 26 still putting machines in the air from bases near the Danish border to oppose the Allied bomber streams.

Caldwell charts this gradual decline of the Luftwaffe fighter force in relentless, information-intensive, day-by-day entries covering the activities of JG 26 and its neighbors. Each entry charts specific sorties, victory claims, casualties, pilot arrivals and transfers, new equipment, and unit movements. Here's a brief excerpt from the two-page entry for 6 June 1944.

   The pair [of Focke-Wulfs] took off into the gray skies at 0800. Priller's only orders to Wodarczyk were to stick close. They headed west at low altitude, spotting Spitfires above them as far east as Abbeville. Near Le Havre the duo climbed into the solid cloud bank. When they emerged, the ships of the largest assault landing in history were spread before their eyes. After a shouted "Good luck!" to Wodarczyk, Priller dived for the beach at 650 kilometers per hour (400 miles per hour). The British soldiers on Sword, the easternmost of the five landing beaches, jumped for cover as the two fighters roared overhead at fifty feet, their machine guns and cannon clattering. The fleet's antiaircraft guns opened fire with every gun that could track them, but the Focke-Wulfs flew through the barrage unscathed. After traversing the beach, the two pilots climbed for the clouds, honor satisfied....
   Although Priller and Wodarczyk may have been the first German pilots to fly over the beachhead, they were by no means the only ones to contact the enemy on this day. Buhligen himself scored the first victory for JG 2, a P-47 over the Orne Estuary, at 1157. I/JG 2 was active over Caen from noon, and III/JG 2 joined in after it arrived at Cormeilles from Brittany. For the day, the Richthofen Geschwader claimed three P-47s, five P-51s, and nine Typhoons for the loss of nine Fw 190s. The P-51s included an entire flight of four 4th Fighter Group aircraft, bounced while strafing a convoy near Rouen.

Interspersed among the daily entries are tabular compilations of losses and claims for the preceding days. These might not reproduce as cleanly on your monitor as they do in the book.

JG 26 Casualties: 3 - 7 July 1943
Date	Rank	Name	Cas	Unit	A/C	WNr	Mkgs	Place	Time	Cause	Allied unit
03-07-43	Uffz.	Knobloch, Bruno	KIFA	11	Bf 109G-3	16264	rd 3	nr Lille-Vendeville		crashed	non-op
06-07-43	Lt.	Fritsch, Paul	KIA	5	Fw 190A-4	2436	bk 7	8km W of Somme Est	2000	Spitfire	303 Sqd
07-07-43	Uffz.	Friedrich, Kurt	KIFA	5	Fw 190A-4	2393	bk 2	S Arras-Grevillers		crashed	non-op

JG 26 Victory Claims: 9 - 11 July 1943
Date	Rank	Name	Unit	Cl#	A/C	Place	Time	Opponent	Conf
09-07-43	Maj.	Galland, W-F.	II CO	48	Spitfire	near Boulogne	0816		yes
10-07-43	Lt.	Hoppe	4 CO	13	B-17	nr Fecamp W of Rouen	0810	95 BG	i.O.
11-07-43	Obfw.	Ellenrieder	8	2	Typhoon	E of Ghent	1550	198 Sqd	i.O.

Caldwell also includes a great many personal accounts that complement the data-intensive aspects of the volume. These come from both Allied airmen (such as Hub Zemke) and Luftwaffe flyers.

   "After shooting down a Thunderbolt over the north bank of the Somme Estuary, I followed Lt. Kehl as he trailed a lone Fortress that he had shot from formation. As I banked toward a Schwarm of Thunderbolts that were preparing to attack Lt. Kehl, I was myself attacked from above and the side by three Thunderbolts and broke toward them, at which the lead aircraft flew off to the northwest. I then attacked the wide-spaced Kette and hit the lead aircraft from a distance of about 300 meters [325 yards]. We were then at an altitude of about 3500 meters [11,500 feet]. I noticed several hits by explosive shells. The Thunderbolt dived away trailing black smoke, and went into a steep dive about one thousand meters below."

All this information is wrapped inside of Caldwell's careful scene-setting so that each sortie and each day is presented within the context of the air campaign and the war as a whole. The book is liberally illustrated with, but not overwhelmed by, photographs of aircraft and pilots. The appendices are especially useful, including, for example, a forty-page compilation of all the JG 26 victory claims from 1939 through 1945 (in the same format as illustrated above) and twenty pages of casualty reports from 1939 through 1945 (also in the same format as above).

All in all, an excellent book and one certain to appeal equally to those who collect air unit histories, those whose main interest is hard data, and those who enjoy reading about the exploits of individual fighter pilots. The JG 26 War Diary certainly deserves consideration as one of the top new books of the year.

Available from online booksellers, local bookshops, or directly from Grub Street and its American distributor, Seven Hills.

Thanks to Seven Hills for providing this review copy.