The first operational unit to fly the Me-262, Jagdgeschwader 7, was named Kommando Nowotny following the death of it's founder and first CO Walter Nowotny. Nowotny was NOT a great supporter of the Me-262, having flown early production aircraft he felt it was not ready for combat service. The lack of any transitional training for pilots simply compounded his conviction, the Me-262 went into combat too soon causing too many fatalities, through mechanical unreliability and pilot error.... Walter Nowotny joined the Luftwaffe in late 1939, completed training in 1941, posted straight to the Russian front. Flying an Me-109, Nowotny flew with JG54 and by January 1943 he had 54 confirmed 'kills'. JG54 converted to Fw-190's and Nowotny was in his element, his kill rate was 2 per day for weeks on end...72 by March 16th, 100 by June 5th, 124 by June 24th. August saw Nowotny promoted to Gruppenkommandeur of 1/JG54, August also saw another 49 confirmed kills and 10 kills in two sorties on Sept 1st took him to 183 confirmed. 72hrs later it was 189 and a date with the Fuhrer...The Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves was to have been presented on Sept 22nd but Nowotny had already topped 200 by Sept 8th and 215 by Sept 15th making him the highest scoring Ace at that time. Three more on Sept 18th took his tally to 218 and on Sept 22nd his Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves had Swords added. Nowotny was the first pilot to reach 250 confirmed kills on Oct 14th, earning him the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves Swords and Diamonds, by Nov 15th Nowotny had 255 confirmed kills and was taken off active service. Nowotny now went on a propaganda tour around Germany. Recalled in Sept 1944, Nowotny was to command a special unit flying the new Me-262 jet. On Nov 8th, during a vist by Generals Alfred Keller and Adolph Galland, news came from the control centre of a large US bomber formation inbound. Nowotny and three other pilots scrambled, Nowotny's last garbled radio message was " it's on fire " or "I'm on fire", witnesses saw his plane dive vertically into the ground at Epe. It is still unknown if Nowotny was brought down by mechanical failure or as a result of shoot down by an American escort fighter. Nowotny had scored three victories in the Me-262 for a total of 258 confirmed kills plus 50 unconfirmed in 442 combat sorties.......HE WAS 23 YEARS OLD.... A slight expansion on last Sundays 'doodle'.....