Includes the Aerial Warfare In Europe During World War II illustrations pack with over 200 maps, plans, and photos. This book is a comprehensive analysis of an air force, the Luftwaffe, in World War II. It follows the Germans from their prewar preparations to their final defeat. There are many disturbing parallels with our current situation. I urge every student of military science to read it carefully. The lessons of the nature of warfare and the application of airpower can provide the guidance to develop our fighting forces and employment concepts to meet the significant challenges we are certain to face in the future.

It ensured that whatever was decided in the Reich's Chancellery, and whatever was done in the front line and in the factories, defeat wouild result. In this, the first detailed, comprehensive history of the Luftwaffe since 1946, Matthew Cooper describes the disintegration of its high command and the disastrous leadership of Göring. He analyses the development of the Luftwaffe's strategy, and with it its aircraft, and its decisions regarding dive bombing, heavy bombers and jet fighters. He describes the Luftwaffe's campaigns and shows clearly how from the moment it was committed to battle in 1939 it was doomed to failure in any prolonged world war. With hindsight it is possible to see that its one chance of avoiding defeat lay in destroying the RAF in the summer of 1940 and this book carefully analyses just why, when it was within an ace of success, the Luftwaffe gave victory to its enemies.

This is comprehensive study of the German Luftwaffe (air force). It is a contribution to the history of World War II, and to strategic thinking about the use and limitations of air power

The study of the Luftwaffe during World War II is still of enormous interest to aviation enthusiasts and modellers. This is a definitive study of the Luftwaffe's colours and markings.

The story of Hitler's Wehrmachtsgefolge (armed forces auxiliaries) is less well known than that of Germany's other armed forces in World War II, such as the panzer divisions, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. The Organization Todt (construction company), Reichsarbeitsdienst (labor service), Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrer Korps (driver's corp) and Volkssturm (people's militia) were given the status of armed forces auxiliaries to protect their members under the Geneva Conventions should they be taken prisoner. By 1944, the Wehrmachtsgefolge comprised 40 percent of the German armed forces, and their contribution to the war effort was far from negligible. This illustrated history documents the development, structure and organization, uniforms, regalia and technical data of these units and discusses their role in the war and during the prewar period.

Details the aircraft and missions of Adolf Hitler's personal aircraft transportation squadron; An unparalleled reference guide to some of the legendary aircraft of the era, including the Junkers Ju 52/3m, the Focke-Wulf FW 200 Condor, and the Junkers Ju 290; Contains rare photographs of Hitler's personal planes and of life inside the inner circle of the Third Reich; Adolf Hitler was the first head of state to have his own personal pilot and airplane. His interest in aviation as a propaganda weapon as well as transportation led him to order the establishment of a special air squadron, the Fliegerstaffel des Fuehrers. To command this unique unit, he chose Hans Baur, veteran World War I combat ace and pioneering airline pilot. During the 1930s and World War II, the Fuehrer's own pilot and special aircraft flew the famous and the infamous. Baur flew Hitler, his inner circle, and visiting dignitaries throughout Europe, to Hitler's secret headquarters and to the far-flung battlefields of the Eastern Front.. The aircraft used in the squadron were the Junkers Ju 52/3m, D-2600; the Focke-Wulf FW 200 Condor; and the Junkers Ju 290, a true flying fortress. Sweeting also discusses the remark

An extensive history of the rise and fall of Nazi Germany’s air force. In his thoroughly researched study, John Killen examines German air power between 1914 and 1945, from the early days of flying when Immelmann, Boelke, Richtofen, and other First World War aces fought and died to give Germany air supremacy, to the nightmare existence of the Luftwaffe as the Third Reich plunged headlong to destruction. Here are the aircraft: the frail biplanes and triplanes of the Kaiser’s war; the great Lufthansa aircraft and airships of the turbulent Thirties; the monoplanes designed to help Hitler in his conquest of Europe. Here are the generals who forged the air weapon of the Luftwaffe: the swaggering Goering, the playboy Udet, the ebullient Kesselring, and the scapegoat Jeschonnek. Here, too, are the pilots who tried to keep faith with their Fatherland despite overwhelming odds: Adolf Galland, Werner Molders, Joachim Marseille, and Hanna Reitsch. Not least are the actions fought by the Luftwaffe from the Spanish Civil War to the Battle of Britain, through the bloody struggle for Crete, and the siege of Stalingrad to the fearful twilight over Berlin. “A good, readable account of the rise and fall of the Luftwaffe that covers all of the main fronts on which it fought, and examines the reasons for the eventual failure as well as providing a readable narrative.” —History of War

In 1940 the Luftwaffe fitted bombs to their Messerschmitt 109s and Messerschmitt 110s, thus creating the Jagdbomber or Jabo. Jabos played a key role in the Battle of Britain, but then appeared to be forgotten until early 1942 when two fighter Staffeln were formed on the Western Front and carried out deadly lightning low-level hit and run attacks in southern Britain.Despite the relative successes of these two units, they were combined and re-designated Schenellkampfgeschwader 10 or SKG 10 in the spring of 1943. The Luftwaffe later decided to commit these warplanes to risky night operations, but the first such mission on 16 April 1943 sadly ended in tragedy. In 1944 they were redesigned and eventually named Nachtschlachtgruppe 20, and despite shortages of aircraft and pilots, they continued to fly on crucial missions such as against the Remagen Bridge and Allied motor transport columns until the end of the war.With many rare and previously unpublished photographs of both the crews and aircraft, this impressive book tells the story of the famous nocturnal Jabo attacks carried out by I/SKG 10 and its subsequent designations. Fully illustrated throughout, it draws upon genuine Allied combat reports, Luftwaffe mission reports and the expert post war analysis carried out by its highly decorated commander, Major Kurt Dahlmann. This masterful study belongs in the library of every serious military historian and modeller.

The Luftwaffe - the German Air Force - played a crucial role in the Wehrmacht's blitzkrieg tactics, providing both air cover and air artillery for Germany's panzer troops on the ground. Germany's successful invasions of France, the Low Countries, the Balkans and the Soviet Union are due in no small part to the professionalism, dedication and skill of the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe gets behind this massive organization to reveal the workings of the German Air Force through its command structure, economic resources, production figures, recruitment, training and philosophy. Broken down by key campaigns and subject areas, the book includes reference tables, diagrams, color maps and charts, presenting all the core data in easy-to-follow formats. The Luftwaffe is an essential reference guide for anyone interested in the history and structure of Germany's wartime air force.

Book illustrated with photos and cutaways of all types of German aircraft form the Second World War.