In January of 1945, Galland and many other top Luftwaffe pilots essentially
mutinied against Reichsluftmarschall "Meyer". Galland and his peers demanded the adoption of a newly developed tactics to fight the RAF and USAAF bombers, they wanted to have all Me-262's released for immediate operational fighter status and they wanted Hitler to relieve Göring of his command for gross incompetence. Challenging Göring on these issues were Major Hans-Heinrich von Brüstlein, Oberst Günther von Maltzahn, Oberst Edu Neumann, Oberst Harald Rödl, Oberst Günther Steinhoff as well as Galland.
Göring however was informed of Galland's efforts and took immediate countermeasures. He essentially ignored the pilots and tempers quickly flared. After a series of unproductive shouting matches, Göring then retaliated by having Galland and a few of his cohorts arrested.
Though the idea to court-martial Galland was quickly dropped, Galland was ordered by Göring to leave Berlin immediately and await further orders. Lützow, who was the spokesperson for the mutinying Luftwaffe pilots, was banished to Italy and forbidden to contact Galland, except to discuss business matters.
At this time, Albert Speer intervened. Speer was so disgusted with Göring's callous behavior, he immediately contacted a sleeping Hitler in the middle of the night to seek the Führer's assistance. The next morning, a visibly shaken Galland was assured by many high level military and political officials of the Third Reich, that the events of the previous day or two had only been a series of massive communications misunderstandings.
Galland was to meet with Hitler right away. A short while later, Göring summoned Galland to his personal residence, Karinhall, and advised Galland that it was only due to the personal request of him, Göring, that all criminal charges filed against Galland were to be dropped. In addition, the Führer had ordered Galland to establish a special squadron comprised only of Me-262 aircraft. Galland could select any name he wanted for the new squadron, provided that he did not lend his own name to the unit.
In addition, the Führer had allowed Galland to select any pilot from the Luftwaffe he wanted to, to staff the new formation with. Quickly, Galland sent Steinhoff off to recruit the best pilots the Luftwaffe had to offer. With a touch of cynicism (and a tribute to his first unit command, III./JG 88 "Mickey Mouse Staffel" in Spain), Galland elected to use the year 1944 in his designation - Jagdverband (JV) 44 (in some texts, the units is also identified as Jagdgruppe 44 "Galland"). During its very short operational career, atleast 10 of the 50 plus pilots of JV 44 were "Ritterkreuz" (Knights Cross)award recipients. It was thus truly a squadron of expert pilots. Its rosterincluded such distinguished Luftwaffe pilots such as Steinhoff, Krupinski, Bär, Lützow, Herget, Kaiser and others. Working with the Me 262 pilots of JG 7, JV 44 became combat ready on 31 March 1945. JV 44's primary mission assignments were to destroy Allied bombers and down as many Allied fighters as possible.
Due to the military situation of the time, various stretches of the München-Augsburg Autobahn served as the primary bases of JV 44. Of interest is that JV 44 really never had more than 15 operational Me-262 jets available at any given time from a pool of about 25-30 assigned aircraft.
Despite the handicaps, JV 44 was able to achieve close to 50 confirmed kills before the war ended on 09 May 1945. JV 44 was overrun by U.S. armored formation at its new base in Salzburg-Maxglan on 03 May 1945.
http://www.skysthelimitgallery.com/IMAGES/Special/news_last.pdf
The following table lists only JV44 pilots who qualify as Experten.
These 17 pilots alone accounted for 1726 Allied planes destroyed in aerial combat.
An average of 101.5 planes each!
Pilot Rank Notes Victories
Bär, Heinz Oberstlt RK-EL-S Acting Kommandeur JV44 220
Barkhorn, Gerhard Major RK-EL-S Fmr Kommodore JG 6 301
Bob, Hans-Ekkehard Major RK 59
Galland, Adolf Gernerallt Wounded 26.4.45 RK-EL-S-Br Kommandeur JV44 104
Grüberg, Hans Oberlt RK 82
Herget, Wilhelm Major Wounded 2.5.45 RK-EL 72
Hohagen, Erich Major RK Technical Officer JV44 55
Kaiser, Herbert Ofw RK 68
Krupinski, Walter Hauptmann RK-EL 197
Lützow, Günther Oberstlt MIA 24.4.45 RK-EL-S 108
Neuman, Klaus Leutnant RK 37
Nielinger, Rudolf Ofw 20
Sachsenberg, Karl Heinz Leutnant RK Leader Würger-Staffel 104
Schnell, Karl-Heinz Major RK 72
Schuhmacher, Leo Ofw Rk 23
Steinhoff, Johannes Oberst Wounded 18.4.45 RK-EL-S 176
Stigler, Franz Oberlt Technical Officer, JV44 28
Awards
German / English
RK Ritter Kreuz / Knights Cross
EL Eichenlaubs / Oak Leaves to RK
S Schwerten / Swords to RK-EL
Br Brillanten / Diamonds to RK-EL-S
The combat records of many of the JV44 staff have been lost to history. It is quite possible, if not probable that even more Experten were present. Missing from the above list are two pilots with known victories while flying Me 262s with JV44. They are Uffz. Johann-Karl Müller with 3 victories and Ofw. Otto Kammerdierer with 2 victories.