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The Luftwaffe Over Germany: Defense of the Reich
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Product Description
This work explores the German air defense system until its collapse in 1945. It examines the detrimental effect of Luftwaffe theory and doctrine on the German air arms ability to defend the homeland once the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive began in earnest. The hard-pressed Luftwaffe leadership attempted to cobble together an air-defense network while at the same time tending to the combat fronts in Russia and the Mediterranean. Units developed specialized tactics and weapons for dealing with heavily defended bomber formations, while senior commanders sought to construct an elaborate command and control system integrating radar, observers, anti-aircraft guns, and fighters. By mid-1944, they had lost the battle - but had exacted a terrible price from the Americans in the process.
The product of a ten-year collaboration between two noted Luftwaffe historians, this work fills a major gap in the literature of World War II. The authors have examined original war diaries, logbooks, doctrine manuals, after-action reports, and interviews with many combat veterans to produce a richly detailed account.
Illustrated with nearly two hundred photographs, as well as new maps and diagrams, Luftwaffe Over Germany is certain to become the standard work on the subject.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #489914 in Books
- Published on: 2007-05-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9781853677120
- Condition: USED - LIKE NEW
- Notes:
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Editorial Reviews
Review
World War II,
“Drawing on newly available primary sources, the authors offer a solid account of day fighter operations against the American strategic bomber operations, as well as analyses pulled from German participants and official observers … The extensive combat recollections taken from interviews and firsthand accounts paint a desperate picture of shrinking numbers of fighters and crews, a diminishing industrial base, disappearing oil resources, and increased political infighting – even as top Nazi officials like Göring still continued to fantasize that the Reich would ultimately triumph.”
About the Author
Customer Reviews
best overview of the air battles for Germany
Don Caldwell is well known for his excellent JG 26 unit history and if you enjoyed that I should think this would be an automatic purchase...
However an overview of the air battles that raged over Germany during the strategic bombing offensive in only 320 pages was always going to be a hard task- as it is this book only covers the day battles - no mention at all of the RAF's campaign. The book is relatively large format and the narrative scope is wide. The main events are related chronologically but while the material is nonetheless well organised the book reads a little breathlessly at times. It is not a scholarly work - nor is it an Osprey. Chapters 1 & 2 cover the period 1914-1941, while other chapters deal with the 'Oil campaign', 'The big 'blow' that never fell' and 'The final desperate expedients'. The text is detailed, very readable and well written, with most 'big' dates (7 July 44, 27 Sept, 2 November, 14 January 45, 24 March 45) given reasonable treatment within the space allowed - however the style of treatment probably makes it a little difficult to pick out certain themes that might be of interest, eg the bomber destroyer activities of the Bf 110G-2 and Me 410 ZG Gruppen, or the Sturmgruppen. That said there is an index..
Photographic content is OK, but you wouldn't buy this for the pictures.. There are of course a number of portraits of JG 26 personalities (perhaps too many portraits, but I guess they were easier to lay out) .. Otherwise the text has a good number of pilot accounts - although some of these are severely curtailed no doubt for reasons of space, eg Ernst Schroeder's long account from 17 December 1944, which in the JG 300 history published by Eagle Editions runs to over five pages of text... Elsewhere Caldwell's map and diagrams are good as is the lengthy discussion of fighter command and control techniques and organisation, fighter doctrine, morale and motivation and the summing up. A little irritatingly perhaps the authors use their own term 'RLV' throughout - standing for Reichsluftverteidigung or Reichs Air Defence - but I've never seen that abbreviation in any German language text...but probably a useful shorthand I guess..
One criticism; when dealing with my favorite unit JG 300 - leading Reich's Defence Geschwader - the authors have used some old and unreliable sources such as Jung, Hennig & Bethke & Dahl. ..While III./JG 300 had specifically been charged with the defence of Berlin there is no sense here of JG 300 as the leading German air defence unit of 1944/45. Bretschneider downed by flak on 24 December 44 ? .. from Hennig & Bethke's fanciful account ..the Kommandeur of the 'newly-formed' IV./JG 300 lost on 17 December..? ...Maj. Heino Offterdinger survived the war - pictures of his 'Green 45' taken in March 1945 feature in the JG 300 book. Elsewhere the account of Walfeld's (II./JG 300) ramming on 11 September 44 is taken from Walther Dahl's largely discredited memoir - unfortunately Wahlfeld (spelling) was a Sturmstaffel pilot and this incident occured in January 1944 and featured on the cover of an edition of the Berlin Illustrierte Zeitung. Similarly the G-6 photo taken from Jung on P234 is not 'Yellow 2' in the fall of 1944 but 'Red 12' in the summer of 43 at Hangelar.. and so on...
That said these are nit picks and this is probably the best we could have hoped for between one set of covers...so recommended without hesitation...
Brilliant Account of Defense of the Reich Fighter Ops!
The product of a 10 year-collaborative effort by noted Luftwaffe authors Donald Caldwell and Richard Muller, LUFTWAFFE OVER GERMANY is a well-researched, well-written, fast-paced account of Luftwaffe air defense operations. Equal parts critical analysis and popular history, the book is must reading for air war enthusiasts.
Caldwell, who wrote the marvelous JG 26 trilogy, and Muller pack a great deal of information in the book's 290-odd pages of text. (If anything, the subject cries out for more pages). After tracing the development of German air defense from 1914 to 1939 in their first chapter, the authors discuss the initial air assaults by RAF units from 1939 to 1941, America's 1942 entry into the European air war, the American build-up from January-June 1943, the air defense's great victories in the last six months of 1943, the turning of the tide in January-April 1944, the oil campaign that lasted from May to August 1944, Adolf Galland's attempts to rebuild the fighter force (September-December 1944) and the final desperate struggles in 1945.
Throughout the book Caldwell and Muller do a first-rate job of weaving together myriad combat reports, technical reports, meeting minutes and other materials into a cogent and fascinating narrative. Their discussion, analysis and conclusions regarding the German - and Allied - developments in the air war make for fascinating reading. Among the most startling - to me- was their assertion that the Germans lost the air war in l943, long before they suffered crippling losses, by not diverting sufficient aircraft to air defense operations. A number of commanders on both sides likewise come in for well-deserved criticism.
The text is illustrated with over 190 photographs of commanders, aircrew, aircraft and combat scenes. Had space allowed, the book would have benefitted from the inclusion of diagrams of Luftwaffe and USAAF combat formations and attack tactics.
Make no mistake about it: Caldwell and Muller's book is a major addition to the literature on Luftwaffe air operations. It may, in fact, be THE definitive book on the subject. Highly recommended.
Critical analysis
An exceptionally well written book that reads very easily even while taking on what can often be a very dry subject... organization. In that role the book fills in many gaps that have been missing in previous works. If you're looking for a re-hash of which was better the mustang or the focke-wulf, or which side over-claimed victories more, this isn't it. It deals purely with the air defense of the Reich and is a marvelous telling of what decisions (and who made them) resulted in the German's loss of air superiority over their own country and the struggle by the men in the cockpits to prevail even after the outcome was unavoidable. Highly recommended!
