What was the most effective 109-equipped gruppe in the West?

[percydanvers]

So I recently finished Caldwells Top Guns of the Luftwaffe and it was interesting to see the discussion of the different component gruppen of Jg 26, how II was shaped by Lange's leadership late in the war to become one of the best FW-190 gruppen over the west. I thought it was interesting how the book says that III./Jg 26 was not generally as good as some of the other 109 equipped units in theater. What 109 gruppe in the West would be considered particularly good? I've see that I./Jg 5 under Theodor Weissenberger did some pretty impressive things. Maybe II. Jg 11 under Gunther Specht? Maybe Jg 27? It's hard to say since there don't seem to be as in-depth of histories of these units as Top Guns was for Jg 26, but I'm wondering if anyone has come across any info that could shed some light on this.

[357th_KW]

As I recall, Caldwell was discussing the lack of experienced leaders in III/JG26, and that it was surprising to him that Galland allowed that to happen, as it was "his" old Gruppe. 

 

However I'm not sure any other Gruppen had those kind of pilots to spare.  If you look at Weissenberger's I/JG5 that he led from June 44, they'd lost 22 aircraft to enemy action in May, 16 in June, 33 in July and a further 6 in the first week of August before withdrawing to Germany to be rebuilt (and ultimately rolled into JG6).  Over that same period a further 29 aircraft were lost in accidents.  So over a 3 month period, the Gruppe had essentially lost it's total strength twice!  And this was a "more successful" unit!

 

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by VBF-12_KW

[percydanvers]

29 minutes ago, VBF-12_KW said:

As I recall, Caldwell was discussing the lack of experienced leaders in III/JG26, and that it was surprising to him that Galland allowed that to happen, as it was "his" old Gruppe. 

 

However I'm not sure any other Gruppen had those kind of pilots to spare.  If you look at Weissenberger's I/JG5 that he led from June 44, they'd lost 22 aircraft to enemy action in May, 16 in June, 33 in July and a further 6 in the first week of August before withdrawing to Germany to be rebuilt (and ultimately rolled into JG6).  Over that same period a further 29 aircraft were lost in accidents.  So over a 3 month period, the Gruppe had essentially lost it's total strength twice!  And this was a "more successful" unit!

 

 

 

True I guess this is really a setting where "best" meant surviving a day or few longer than average.