Autumn and Winter Check-in Challenge
It wasn't long before Garand's pilots were back in the fray. On 25 April, they engaged another bomber formation, claiming to have shot down two U.S. fighter jets in a dogfightIn this aerial battle, the 44th Fighter Squadron used the ME-262 equipped with a 50 mm cannon for the first time, but the cannon jammed, so no Allied bombers were shot down by the large caliber cannon.
The next day, Garland personally led his pilots over Ulm to intercept a formation of B-26 Marauder bombers, quickly shooting down two planes with their cannons, as well as two rockets fired by the Germans. The German jet was then attacked by escorting P-47 Thunderbolt fighters, and Garland's cockpit was shot through and his right leg was broken by debris. After disengaging from the battle, Garand finally returned to the Riem base, only to be attacked by Allied fighters. He managed to get the plane to land, but the plane rushed off the runway and taxied for some distance before stopping, and the cannon shells continued to surround his plane**. Garland's flying career in the Luftwaffe came to an end on this day, when Colonel Heinz Bar took command of the 44th Fighter Squadron.
The 44th Fighter Squadron fought its last battle the next day, against American fighters from the west and Soviet fighters from the east. The ME-262 of the 44th Fighter Squadron claimed to have shot down four enemy aircraft, two of which Barr had covered.
When the 44th Fighter Squadron was ordered to move north to Prague to take part in the fight against the Soviet troops advancing towards the Czech capital, Garland insisted on returning to command the troops, although his leg was still covered in plaster and he could only stay in a hospital bed.
Garland feared that his pilots might be captured by the Soviets if he followed the order, so he did not obey the order and instructed Barr to remain in command of the 44th Fighter Squadron. After much lobbying by Garland, the order was finally changed, and the 44th Fighter Squadron began to move to Salzburg, Austria.
When the news of Hitler's suicide came, Garland sent a secret envoy to negotiate with the Americans, and he proposed that the 44th Fighter Squadron be kept intact to fight the Soviets, but the Americans ignored his advice. The Luftwaffe General Headquarters still hoped that the 44th Fighter Squadron could be moved to Prague, but Barr refused to do so, declaring that "I will only follow the orders of Lieutenant General Garand".
On May 4, when U.S. tanks captured their new base in Salzburg, the 44th Fighter Squadron surrendered, but the pilots moved a step faster and threw grenades into the cockpit, destroying all the planes.
End. Garland later denied that he was the kind of Nazi fanatic who wanted the war to continue even though he knew that Germany could not avoid defeat, declaring that his troops were only doing their duty until the last minute.
At the end of World War II, he was unable to prove that the concentrated ME-262 could defeat the Allied bomber formations, which was too low. No matter what time it was, the planes he could send out were only a dozen of them, and in the face of hundreds of fighters and bombers, the "ace squadron" was powerless.
In its short 11-week career, the 44th Fighter Squadron shot down only 24 Allied aircraft in air combat, and itself lost three ME-262s, although dozens of the unit's aircraft were blown up or damaged in the relentless Allied air raids on the base.
The fate of the 44th Fighter Squadron exemplifies the contribution of elite units to Germany in the war. Although Garland and his compatriots continued to fight to the end, they were unable to change the outcome of the war, and only ended in heroic defeat. Hitler's strategy had failed, and no matter how well-equipped and well-led these elite troops were, the bravery of a few men could not match the numerical superiority of the Allies.