[2] This squadron was part of II./JG 3 under the command of Gordon Gollob and fighting with Army Group South.

[3] A short secondment for his Gruppe to the Mediterranean Theatre, from January to April 1942, yielded no further success for Franz, but upon their return to the Eastern Front in May he started scoring steadily.

Again covering Army Group South and the advance across Ukraine toward Stalingrad, he scored his 20th victory on 31 July.

In the intervening months the Gruppe had been recalled to Germany for Defence of the Reich duties against the increasingly intensive bombing raids of the 8th United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

This was a completely different type of aerial warfare - at high altitude and against the slow but very heavily armed box-formations of American bombers.

Based around the industrial Ruhr heartland and Holland for the next year, he slowly added to his score.

Following this engagement, Schwaiger made a successful forced landing in his Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-5 (Werknummer 110186—factory number) near Neuburg an der Donau but was then killed by strafing North American P-51 Mustang fighters after he had left his aircraft.