A Higher Call

by Adam Makos

This was the headquarters of Fighter Wing 27 (Jagdgeschwader 27 or “JG-27”), the legendary “Desert Wing” romanticized in the newsreels. JG-27 had just 120 pilots at full strength. They were the primary fighter force in Africa and served a strategic mission. The Germans wanted to take the Suez Canal in Egypt away from the British. Whoever controlled the canal controlled one of only two waterways into the Mediterranean. The fighting in North Africa had already been raging for a year. It was a pushing contest. The Germans would push the British one or two hundred miles back toward the canal, into sandy Egypt, then the British would push the Germans back the same distance into craggy Libya. The mission facing JG-27 was daunting. They were to keep the skies clear over the German Army known as the Afrika Korps. Opposing JG-27 was the Desert Air Force, a mixed unit of English squadrons and those from all nations of the British crown. The Desert Air Force outnumbered the pilots of JG-27 five to one.