Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 37 : Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front

The highest scoring aces of any aerial conflict were the Luftwaffe pilots involved in the bloody combats on the Russian Front, slugged out between 1941-45. Men like Hartmann (352 kills), Barkhorn (301 kills) and Rall (275 kills) all scored the bulk of their staggering tallies against the Soviet Red Air Forces, with a further seven pilots all passing the 200-mark during the campaigns. The most common fighter used by these pilots was the venerable Bf 109, which was involved in the action from Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941, through to the doomed Defence of the Reich in May 1945. Units like JGs 5, 52 and 54 all flew the Messerschmitt fighter, progressing from the Emil to the final Gustav variants. This book includes all the high-scoring aces, and explains just how difficult a job the Jagdwaffe faced on the Russian Front, and how its experts achieved such overwhelming scores. Text by John Weal with illustrations by Iain Wyllie.