.....It was a brilliant May morning in 1944 - a cloudless blue sky stretched over the northern German airfield of Salzwedel. On the apron in front of the hangars all 68 pilots of IV./JG 3 stood rigidly to attention in front of Generalleutnant Schmid of I. Jagdkorps. Behind them were assembled the 500 members of the Gruppe ground echelon in service dress and steel helmets. The Ritterkreuz around his neck glinting in the sun, Schmid gazed with pride over the ranks of pilots drawn up in front of him and declared that IV./JG 3 was now operational as a Sturmgruppe. Kommandeur Moritz stepped forward to read out the oath of the Sturmgruppe:

“We swear to fight in defense of the Reich true to the principles and rules of engagement of the Sturmgruppe. We know that, as pilots of the Sturmgruppe, we are called upon in a special way to protect and defend to the utmost of our ability the population of our homeland. We undertake that, on every mission resulting in contact with four-engine bombers, we shall press home the attack to the shortest range and - should our fire not bring the enemy down- we will destroy him by ramming.”

The pilots of IV./JG 3 knew every line of the oath - each of them had already signed a similarly worded affidavit individually. Each of them understood the seriousness and import of the moment - each pilot had also been given the chance to transfer out of the unit should they not wish to accept the regime. None had done so. When Moritz had finished speaking, Schmid approached the line of pilots, shaking each man's hand in turn. Now the oath had been read out in front of the commanding General ,the pilots' commitment was embodied in this handshake. ( )

One of the top FW-190 units in WWII which was tasked to attack the 4-engined bombers over germany. Written by Jochen Prien the text is in German. Lots of photographs of Bf-109s and FW-190s ( )