Fighter Aces

When the Luftwaffe entered the war, its nightfighter force was virtually non-existent thanks to its leader, Reichmarschall Hermann Göring, boasting that bombs would never fall on Germany. By mide-1940 his folly was evident; the first nightfighter wing was hastily formed with Bf 110s. As arguably the most consistently effective arm of the wartime Luftwaffe, the Nachtjagd took a steady toll of Allied aircraft - the vast majority of them RAF bombers - throughout most of World War 2. Fighting a tough enemy, as well as a lower priority in aircraft and personnel procurement than it merited, the force never shrank from its task.

By the end of 1941 the Soviet Union was near collapse and its air force almost annihilated, leaving large numbers of surviving pilots with no aircraft to fly. At this juncture the United Kingdom put aside its prewar animosities toward the Communists and despatched several hundred Hurricane fighters despite the fact that at this time the British were still struggling to supply the RAF with modern fighters in North Africa and the Far East…