Driven from their North African bases, the Luftwaffe regrouped on Sicily in early summer 1943 as the Allies prepared to invade the island. Airfields and serviceable planes were few, and Field Marshal Hermann Goering demanded the impossible of his airmen, branding them cowards when they were unsuccessful. Despite these crushing odds, the pilots of the 77th Fighter Wing took to the skies and attempted to ward off waves of Allied bombers and fighters. Wing commander Johannes Steinhoff bluntly describes the bleak situation on the island and the fierce combat above it.