With Whom Would You Replace Galland With?

[Njaco]

Just curious if there could have been a better General der JagdFlieger when Galland was replaced by Gordon Gollob? I've never really liked Gollob and don't think he really did much in the last months of the war - granted there probably wasn't much to do. But what if Galland was replaced, lets say 1 January 1944. Who do you think would do a better job? Most of the candidates are fighter pilots with a few characters thrown in. Make your pick and then explain why you would think your man would win!

[Maximowitz]

You could put Donald Duck in there and it wouldn't matter; Gollob inherited a poisoned chalice.

[Lucky13]

I didn't know that Gordon Gollob's name used to be McGollob, before he changed it!

[parsifal]

I disagre that fighter pilots make the best commanders of fighters. In the British context, the best fighter commanders were officers with staff training....men like Dowding or Park

I dont know the luftwaffe personalities well enough to make too much more comment, but just to start the debate might suggest one of the air corps commanders, like Fiebig, but I think there are better, notably Richthofen or Kesselring perhaps

[Njaco]

Very good pont Parsifal and I agree - totally forgot to add Richthofen or Kesselring but did manage to get Feibig, 4th down!

[drgondog]

I picked Kesslering with reservation. He was arguably one of the best combat leaders in Germany, had experience with LW. My reservation would be lack of hands on experience against either the RAF or USAAF and the challenges inherent in developing a strategy to defeat the Allies, the persuasive ability to argue the essentials with Goering and Hitler, and the force of personality to also influence Speer.

The most ridiculous failures of the Goering/Hitler combo included prohibiting the LW from centralizing forces to be able to move critical mass to any bomber stream from the West, prohibiting fighters from engaging with USAAF fighter escort, and failure to put a high altitude version of the Fw 190 into play, starting in late 1942/1943 when it was obvious that USAAF was pursuing daylight bombardment. Failure to generate replacements with skills was also crucial in 1942/43.

In 1942/43 the perception was that it was impossible to put a competitive escort, with the range, over deep Germany - but that was a hope not a contingency plan.

IMO, a combat leader like Kesslering with possible gravitas to make those changes would have to occur in 1942, early 1943. If that happened I wonder if any other equally competant leader could have actually replaced Kesslering who fought so skillfully in Italy?

[BikerBabe]

Steinhoff.

[parsifal]

I picked Richthofen, though he did suffer from a Brain Tumour in 1944. His handling LF-4 in 1942-3 was excellent, and achieved results out of all proportion to the forces available to him, particulalry the fighters at his disposal. By whatever means he also kept losses to a tolerable level as well

[Airframes]

I would go with either Kesselring or Steinhoff. Not sure if Steinhoff would have had the experience at the time, or, indeed, if he was out of with injury by then. But I think he would have had at least the force of his own character to do the job, which showed in his post-war position and rank. Overall though, I think Kesselring would have been the one, given his earlier LW esperience, and his staff training, and handling of other campaigns - a good cross section of experience and knowledge, plus respect.

[drgondog]

I would go with either Kesselring or Steinhoff. Not sure if Steinhoff would have had the experience at the time, or, indeed, if he was out of with injury by then. But I think he would have had at least the force of his own character to do the job, which showed in his post-war position and rank. Overall though, I think Kesselring would have been the one, given his earlier LW esperience, and his staff training, and handling of other campaigns - a good cross section of experience and knowledge, plus respect.

Steinhoff cracked up an Me 262 on a bomb cratered runway in 1945 and received 3rd degree burns in the crash. I think he was in the MTO in Jan 1944.