Green Hearts: First in Combat with DORA 9:The Men of III/Jg 54 and Jg 26 Unite in Defence of Their Homeland 1944-45

During the autumn of 1944, III/JG 54 was the first Luftwaffe unit to be supplied with the new Fw 190 D-9 “Dora”. The D-9s were used in base defence missions for the Me 262 jets of Kommando Nowotny, and later flights against Allied fighter and fighter-bomber formation over NW Europe.

The author has meticulously accumulated material for this work. He tracked down former pilots of the unit who are still living, as well as families of pilots killed in action and interviewed them. He visited locations where dogfights and crashes took place, talked to eyewitnesses, and at the same time conducted extensive research in archives in Germany, America and Britain. Finally, he integrated the results of his research with the original 500 plus page wartime diary of the unit, in which reports from participants, passages from documents, excerpts from letters and diaries, and statements of witnesses on the ground vividly recall the events. The point of view of the USAAF and RAF pilots are also explored.

Green Hearts contains hundreds of previously unpublished photographs. Full colour aircraft profiles bring the exceptional photographs to life. Appendices list victories, losses, personnel, and serial numbers of the D-9s.

- An immensely detailed Luftwaffe unit history, meticulously researched
- Includes hundreds of previously unpublished b/w photos as well fold-out full colour profiles by Tom Tullis and Jerry Crandall, colour photos, and scale drawings
- Many eyewitness accounts are also included

Urbanke, A.

Hardcover large format 297mm x 210mm 352 pages 250 photos, colour profiles.

Book Code:  HE0034