In the final year of the war JG 27 fought the Normandy landings in June 1944 and supported the last major German offensive in the West in December.

The wing was primarily engaged in fighter escort duties for Junkers Ju 52 transports dropping Fallschirmjäger units at the Albert Canal from their bases around Cologne.

The Battle of Sedan was the crucial breakthrough for German forces, their thrust aimed north of the Maginot Line and south of Allied mobile armies.

JG 27 escorted Ju 87s from I. Gruppe of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 (StG 1—1st Dive Bomber Wing) and II./StG 2 to Portland, where 18 Hurricanes from 87 and 213 Squadron flying from RAF Exeter engaged them.

I./JG 27s commander, Eduard Neumann heard the battle developing, but communications were poor and he decided to let Redlich, one of his most experienced Staffelkapitän (Squadron Leaders) fight alone.

[94] On 28 August three Bf 109s were reported damaged in accidents, and a Gotha Go 145 from Stab/JG 27 got lost while flying from Cherbourg to Germany and landed on Lewes racecourse; the pilot was captured.

[113] One day after the official end to the Battle of Britain, Lippert achieved arguably the most notable victory of the wing when he shot down the leading RAF ace Archie McKellar.

[124] On 20 April Geschwaderkommodore Wolfgang Schellmann, Ibel's principal successor, led Stab/JG 27 over Khalkis harbour to support the bombing of Allied ships evacuating Greece.

[141] Erbo Graf von Kageneck, the wing's most successful pilot in the Soviet Union, achieved the last victory for JG 27 on 12 October 1941 and his personal tally stood at 65.

274 Squadron RAF lost all six Hurricanes it sent on a single mission when a flight of Bf 109s from JG 27 led by Gerhard Homuth, and containing the most successful fighter pilot in Africa, Hans-Joachim Marseille, engaged them from a superior altitude over Tobruk.

Those that lived were able to build vast amounts of experience and consequently the top-rated German pilots tended to claim far more aerial victory totals than Allied airmen.

This has led some analysts to question the military effectiveness of German fighter units which left British bombers untouched to wreak havoc on Axis ground forces and supply lines.

[195] The Second Battle of El Alamein precipitated the collapse of the Axis front in Egypt and by mid-November 1942 the Afrika Korps was streaming back west into Libya.

[205] In combat over an Axis convoy on 3 March, 39-victory ace pilot Rudolf Sinner, II./JG 27, reported the failure of his mission when the largest ship was hit and burned after a low-level attack by American medium bombers.

[208] In the midst of these activities, Gustav Rödel assumed command of JG 27 on 22 April 1943, replacing Neumann who moved to the staff of the General der Jagdflieger.

A Junkers Ju 88 from III./KG 76 lured the fighters away and the Bf 109s were able to break up the formation, force the American bomber pilots to jettison their bombs, though they lost only two aircraft.

Gruppe attempted to escort Ju 52s to Africa, but the transports flew too low for evasive movements and in large open formations making it impossible for Bf 109s to cover them all.

[222] From 16 May to 9 July Allied forces flew 42,147 sorties and lost 250 aircraft to the Axis' 325 as the air offensive gradually rendered airfields in Sicily inoperable.

The gruppe returned to the Mediterranean on 23 September, but located to Argos, near Athens in Greece; it remained engaged in combat operations in this theatre until March 1944.

I./JG 27, II./JG 51, II./JG 53 and the factory protection schwarm claimed successes, but Göring and General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland (former JG 27 adjutant) were dissatisfied and personally flew to Austria to rebuke the group commanders.

The USAAF, RCAF and RAF and subordinated foreign elements had achieved air supremacy over Western Europe by June 1944, and the Luftwaffe was unable to challenge their superiority.

[259] The situation in Normandy grew so critical that Reichsmarschall Göring tried to cut losses by introducing a scale, which permitted his squadron, group and wing commanders into battle provided they led large formations of fighters.

[267] On 17 September 1944, the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group began Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands, with the aim of striking across the Rhine to the Ruhr and ending the war that year.

They failed to shoot down a single American bomber, but claimed six P-51s; the battle cost exactly 50 Bf 109s with 27 pilots killed and 12 wounded in action.

[275] On 16 December Hitler gambled his remaining Panzer Divisions, by ordering the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS to begin the Ardennes Offensive, to retrieve Germany's military situation.

[284] Christmas Eve brought I. Gruppe no respite and it fought high-altitude battles in support of JG 3 costing the wing another four pilots missing or killed.

Gruppe, was shot down on the return journey; the veteran pilot with ten years service survived a parachute failure and hit a tree.

Brown, who has researched the records of individual Desert Air Force squadrons, suggests that Luftwaffe claim confirmation in North Africa was less stringent than it had been during the Battle of Britain.

[300] Brown points out specific, documented examples of spurious verification, such as one "confirmation" by a Panzer commander, who merely saw a "cloud of dust", after an Allied plane passed behind a sand dune.

[302] Author Christopher Shores and his co-authors point to an interview with Eduard Neumann, commanding officer of JG 27, who insisted their work included an incident of deliberate claiming of enemy aircraft when no combat took place.