I./JG3 was the most successful Gruppe, with 88 enemy aircraft destroyed for ten Bf 109s lost while six pilots were killed and one wounded.

[3] The Geschwader took part in Operation Barbarossa from 22 June 1941 onwards, and during the offensive against the Soviets JG 3 claimed its 1,000th aircraft destroyed on 30 August.

On 27 June 1941, Hauptmann Gordon Gollob was made Gruppenkommandeur II./JG 3, following the mid-air collision death of Hauptman Lothar Keller.

[6] II./JG 3, under the command of Captain Karl-Heinz Krahl was transferred to Comiso on Sicily in January 1942 to bolster JG 53 and the Regia Aeronautica which were carrying out sustained attacks against Malta.

At the end of April II Gruppe departed Sicily for a brief stay in Germany before being redeployed to the Eastern front.

In June 1942 II Gruppe was transferred back to the East, where it joined in the advance on the Stalingrad front, suffering heavy losses.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, Stab./JG 3 were based at Pitomnik Airfield, where Wilcke directed all day fighter operations over the city.

In mid-November 1942 JG 3 then provided the famous Platzschutzstaffel (airfield defence squadron) which defended the besieged 6th Army in Stalingrad until late 1942.

On a rotational basis up to six volunteer pilots drawn from I. and II./JG 3 formed a defence Staffel within the rapidly contracting Stalingrad perimeter.

[7] Their purpose was to cover the Junkers Ju 52 transports flying supplies into Pitomnik Airfield and to protect the aircraft while on the ground.

Despite often only having 2 or 3 Bf 109's serviceable, in the last 6 weeks of the siege (until mid January) claimed some 130 Soviet aircraft shot down.

In mid-January the pilots were ordered to fly out of the pocket and rejoin their parent unit, although some thirty ground crew remaining became prisoners when the city surrendered to the Soviets on 2 February 1943.

In July 1943 II./JG 3 and III./JG 3 at this time were part of Luftlotte 4 and flew in Operation Zitadelle, the tank offensive launched around the Kursk salient.

This long training period paid dividends as the gruppe started to shoot down impressive numbers of USAAF bombers without the heavy losses incurred by many Jagdgeschwadern thrown into the battle with less preparation.

Sturmstaffel 1 was the first experimental unit to fly the so-called Sturmböcke (Battering Ram) up-gunned Focke-Wulf Fw 190A aircraft, and was attached to JG 3, following the general demise of the Zerstörergruppen as bomber destroyers earlier in 1944.

(Sturm) / JG 3 escorted by two Gruppen of Bf 109s from Jagdgeschwader 300 led by Major Walther Dahl.

Dahl drove the attack to point-blank range behind the Liberators of the 492nd Bomb Group before opening fire.

IV./JG 3 lost nine fighters shot down and three more suffered damage and made crash landings; five of the unit's pilots were killed.

[9] II./JG 3 and III./JG 3 were thrown into the Operation Overlord air battles over the Normandy beach-head in June 1944, and, with the other 23 Gruppen committed were decimated by the hordes of Allied fighters present.

By 5 September 1944, when the Gruppe was withdrawn from the battle, III./JG 3 alone had lost a staggering 56 pilots killed or missing, 23 wounded and 4 POW, while claiming some 54 Allied aircraft shot down.

II./JG 3 on the same day was much less successful when scrambled with other Gruppen to intercept American raids against oil plants in Merseburg.

[10] On 5 December 1944, Major Moritz was relieved from command of IV./ JG 3 due to a complete nervous breakdown.

A newly formed II./JG 3 was raised from a former bomber unit at the end of 1944; this new Gruppe was transferred to the East in early 1945 to counter the Soviet air offensive.