There were from the beginning two defenders of the Reich, the JG2 and the JG26. Both units had been send to fight the incoming Soviets in January 1945. Some elements were also converting their Focke-Wulfs to He-162 jets.

I. and III./JG11 were still flying the FWs for the defence of the Reich over bombed Berlin late in April.

One unfortunate pilot of the Gruppe was killed in an airbattle over Tempelhof on 24 April 1945. What was curiously enough in this fight was that the Luftwaffe pilot fought against Spitfires, P-51s and Yaks!

Source: Osprey - Focke-Wulf FW-190 Aces of the Western Front, John Weal.

The Stabsschwarm of JG 301 was the only fortunate section of the entire Luftwaffe to receive this ultimate Focke Wulf, the Ta-152 and to use it in combat. They got their first Ta-152H-1s on 2 March 1945. The Stabsschwarm saw a little action with the Ta-152s but still exhibited it to be superior in many terms to Allied fighters.

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29th of December 1944 was a black day for all the III/JG54. Besides hauptmann Robert Weiss losses were:
5 pilots from 8th squadron,
6 pilots from 9th squadron,
6 pilots, partially from Stab. squadron, partially from 11th and 12th squadrons.

So how it happened.

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Walter Nowotny was a person to prove Me-262 is much better and usefull as a fighter not a bomber. He was commander of III/JG6 or “Kommando Nowotny”.

Flying Me-262 Nowotny claimed on 3 air victories, 2 of them on the 8th of November, when during the flight against bombers he crashed. Exact details of his death are still unknown. He reported about two shot down planes (probably B-24 and P-51), afterwards it was unreadable, something like “he is burning” or “I’m burning”. Ground control confirmed they see Me-262A-1 has dived out of the clouds vertically down with its engines burning. Later it was found that Nowotny tried to jump out on about 300-400 meters altitude, but his parachute was hooked by the plane tail.

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7th of October 1944 9/JG54 (commander Wilhelm Heilmann) and 12/JG54 (commander Hans Dortenmann) flying FW-190D-9 “Dora-9″ were moved to Hesepe and Achmer airfields accordingly. They were covering Kommando Nowotny operations there.

It was done beacuse of extreme Me-262 vulnerability during take-off and landing processes. On the 7th of October USAF’s P-51s has shot down two Me-262 immediately after take-off from Achmer airfield and one Me-262 was destroyed during its take-off rolling.

Source: Willi Heilmann “Alert In the West: A Luftwaffe Pilot on the Western Front”

26th of Spetember 1944 was formed up III/JG6 with Me-262 on duty. It was combat unit using Me-262 as a fighter and to work up its combat usage and to prove Me-262 will be much usefull for the Luftwaffe as a fighter, not as a bomber. The unit was based on two airfields northwest of Osnabruck: Achmer and Hesepe.

Commander of III/JG6 was Walter Nowotny, by the 26th of September he had 255 confirmed air victories. 10th of October III/JG6 was renamed into “Kommando Nowotny”.

Walter Nowotny has died 8 November 1944.

Related:
07.10.44. FW-190D-9 to protect Me-262
08.11.44. Walter Nowotny death

Josef Kammhuber, XII air corps commander, the creator of night Reich air defence has made fatal mistake 24th of June 1943 - he said Hitler the truth.

Due to Kammhuber’s insistence by the summer 1943 his “Himmelbelt” zones were covering territory from the north of Jutland to the Mediterranean, he had five Geschwaders (about 400 of twin-engine fighters) under his command, and sixth was forming up. But he was not going to stop on this. Intelligence reports about plans of allies (especially US) to re-equip bombers aviation with huge amount of four-engine bombers made him think German night air defence will be useless against such power.

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14th October 1942 Erich Hartmann took off for his first combat mission as a wingman of feldwebel Eduard ‘Paule’ Rossmann. By that day Hartmann was 22 years old lieutenant of 7.III/JG-52.
Immediately after take-off they’ve received order: “Seven fighters and three Il-2 are attacking the road near Prohladniy. Intercept and destroy.”

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First time Liuftwaffe gave high priority to the mass of horizontal bombers instead of precision dive bombers single strikes, as they did all the time before.

It was Malta operation, planned by the colonel Doychmann, chief of the II air corps staff.
Plan consisted of 3 steps:
1. To destroy British bombers on the ground, based on Takali homebase.
2. To attack bombers and torpedo bombers airbases in Luka, Hal Far and Kalafrana.
3. Attack docks and ports on the Valette seabase.

20 of March, 1942 was launched phase 1 - to destroy British bombers on the ground on their Takali homebase.

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At the 1st november 1941 was created II/NJG2, commander famous Luftwaffe ace oberleutnant Helmut Lent.

It had squadron commanders oberleutnant Shenert, major Egmont zur Lippe Weissenfeld and oberleutnant Ludvig Bekker (the one who was in a crew first to test famous Lihtenshtein radar).