The three fighter pilots Gerhard Barkhorn (301 kills), Helmut Lipfert (203 kills) and Otto Fönnekold (136 kills) were among the best experts in the second group of the most successful squadron of the Second World War - the JG 52.
How good were their actual successes, according to the information from the Soviet archives?
This chronicle largely answers this question through intensive research in Soviet documents and tells of the real and remarkable aerial victories of these three simple "soldiers of the Air War", who, together with other group members, almost alone against an overwhelming superiority of the Soviet Air Force in the Crimea in November 1943 had to fight until May 1944. For five months, the II./JG 52 almost stood up to two Soviet air armies and the Air Force of the Black Sea fleet in the Crimea, with Soviet pilots having to pay a high blood price.
With almost 200 photos and documents on the history of the air war in the southern section of the Eastern Front (late 1943 to early 1941), some of which have not yet been published, this documentation records an unpathetic and factual chronicle of the combat activity of German fighter pilots in the Crimea, where these three fighter pilots in particular Dogfights against their Soviet opponents left a particularly unforgettable trail …
209 pictures, 4 of them color maps, 192 b/w pictures, 9 color pictures, and 4 colored schemata.

Author(s): Iwan Lawrinenko/Michael Meyer
Publisher: Helios
Pages: 200
Language: German
Edition: 1
Year of publication: 2020
Dimensions: 29 x 21 cm
Binding: Hardcover