page_title: Jagdgeschwader 300
section_title: Sturmgruppen
hierarchical_section_title: Jagdgeschwader 300 / Sturmgruppen
context_page_description: Jagdgeschwader 300 was a Luftwaffe fighter-wing of World War II. JG 300 was formed on June 26, 1943 in Deelen as Stab/Versuchskommando Herrmann, from July 18, 1943 as Stab/JG Herrmann and finally renamed on August 20, 1943 to Stab/JG 300. Its first Geschwaderkommodore was Oberstleutnant Hajo Herrmann.
context_section_description: In the summer of 1944 Sturmgruppe units were raised, equipped with heavily armoured and armed FW 190 fighters and charged with breaking up the massed ranks of USAAF daylight bombers. Initially manned by volunteers, each pilot was trained to close with the enemy and engage in extremely short-range combat, attacking from the front and the rear in tight arrowhead formations, even to contemplate deliberately ramming enemy bombers when circumstances permitted.
  II./ JG 300 became such a Sturmgruppe unit at this time and, equipped with the Focke-Wulf 190 A-8/R2 or R8 with two MK 108 30mm cannon, and two MG 151/20 20mm cannon, enjoyed initial success in downing bombers, but also suffered heavy losses to the massed fighter escorts. From June 1944 until the end of October 1944, II Gruppe suffered some 73 killed, 2 missing, and 32 wounded.
  On 7 July 1944 a force of 1,129 B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Eighth Air Force set out from England to bomb aircraft factories in the Leipzig area and the synthetic oil plants at Boehlen, Leuna-Merseburg and Lützkendorf. This formation was intercepted by a German Gefechtsverband comprising IV. (Sturm) Gruppe Jagdgeschwader 3, escorted by two Gruppen of Bf 109s from JG 300 led by Major Walther Dahl. Dahl drove the attack to point-blank range behind the Liberators of the 492nd Bomb Group, which at the time was temporarily without fighter cover, before opening fire. Within about a minute the entire squadron of twelve B-24s had been annihilated. The USAAF 2nd Air Division lost 28 Liberators that day, the majority to the Sturmgruppe attack. IV. /JG 3 lost nine fighters shot down and three more suffered damage and made crash landings; five pilots were killed.
  USAAF escort fighters were increasingly effective. On 11 September 1944 II. (Sturm)/JG 300 lost 13 Fw 190s to P-51 Mustangs, with 10 pilots killed and two wounded. They claimed nine Mustangs, actual Mustang losses was just one 339th Fighter Group P-51, damaged by Flak and shot down by an Me 262. I. /JG 300, flying top cover lost 13 Bf 109s without claiming a kill. One pilot was killed and one wounded.
  Major Alfred Lindenberger, (a forty-seven-year-old Prussian World War I ace with 12 victories) was posted to II. /JG 300 in June 1944 and was made Gruppenkommandeur later in 1944. On 28 September 1944 he was shot down by P-51s and wounded. Owing to his age and inexperience with modern fighters he flew most sorties as a wingman. Lindenberger claimed two US four-engined bombers on 17 December 1944.
  As the year progressed the 30 Jagddivision was broken up, as JG 301 left for Ploiești in Romania while JG 302 flew combat over Hungary and Austria. Only JG 300 remained in the Reich. Major Dahl was dismissed from his command of JG 300 by Hermann Göring on 30 November 1944, for refusal to launch what he considered a suicidal interception mission.
  During the Ardennes offensive in late 1944, JG 300 was one of the few units remaining on Reich defence duties, with most other fighter units sent to support attacking ground forces. The Geschwader took heavy losses in late 1944, particularly on 17 December when 100 aircraft of JG 300 intercepted USAAF bombers, claiming 33 shot down but losing 43 of their own number. Many of the pilots killed were irreplaceable Experten, including on 24 December 1944, the Staffelkapitän of 5. /JG 300 Oblt Klaus Bretschneider, who was shot down by 357th FG P-51s (who claimed 28 fighters for 2 losses).
  On 14 January 1945 a mixed formation of JG 300 and JG 301 were attacked by USAAF escort fighters, during an interception against the USAAF 3rd Air Division, bombing oil targets over central Germany. The two Geschwader claimed 18 B-17s, 7 P-51s and one P-47 downed, although the mixed formation lost 89 aircraft with 52 killed and 18 wounded. (JG 300 lost 51 fighters, with 32 pilots killed and 10 wounded).The 357th Fighter Group claimed over 50 kills, and the 56th FG and the 20th FG also claimed victories.
  On 14 February 1945, operations against the USAAF bomber streams by JG 300 and 
caption: shot Downed Consolidated B-24 Liberator of the 492d Bombardment Group after an aerial battle at Oschersleben on 7 July 1944
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