"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 volume 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.
Aircraft of the Aces 6 and 37 are also available in a single volume as ‘German Aces of the Russian Front’. "

John Weal is Osprey’s primary Luftwaffe author and artist. He possesses one of the largest private collections of original German-language literature from World War 2 and his research is based on this huge archive. Fluent in German, Weal has spent much time establishing contact with ex-members of the Luftwaffe, from General Staff Officers of the RLM to frontline aircrew. A freelance airbrush artist since the days of the monthly RAF Flying Review, he has illustrated some of the finest Luftwaffe profiles to date.