JG 26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe - Softcover

Caldwell, Donald L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804110506 ISBN 13: 9780804110501

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1993

Synopsis

This is the story of the JG 26 pilots, or "Abbeville Kids." A microcosm of World War II exists in the rise and fall of this famous fighter wing--whose slashing attacks always seemed to come from the best position--from its founding during Hitler's military buildup, through its glory days in the first years of the war--when its bases in northen France were to be avoided at all costs--right up to the grim, final hours of the Third Reich.

About this title

About the Author:

DONALD CALDWELL is a retired research chemist and veteran of the US Navy. For the past 25 years he has researched archival sources and interviewed veterans, primarily from the Luftwaffe. His first book, JG 26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe, has been followed by seven others on the Luftwaffe: all have won critical and popular acclaim.

From Publishers Weekly:

Jagdgeschwader (Fighter Wing) 26, the German elite fighter unit, was more feared by the Allies than any other Luftwaffe group. Based on extensive archival research in Europe, personal combat diaries and interviews with more than 50 surviving pilots, Caldwell here assembles a superb day-to-day chronicle of JG26 operations, from its first air victory in 1939 to its final combat patrol in 1945. For the first two years of the war it was an even match between the Spitfires and Hurricanes of the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe's Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfs; but--as the author reveals in meticulous detail--the scales tipped in favor of the Allies in 1943 with the arrival of the Eighth U.S. Air Force and its peerless P-51 Mustang. In his first book, Caldwell, a research chemist, describes how the German pilots' morale remained high even after it was obvious to all but the youngest and most naive that the war was lost.seems obvious? The ultimate recommendation comes from Adolf Galland, legendary Messerschmitt pilot and commanding officer of Fighter Wing 26, who in the foreword calls JG26 "a profound book, written in full fairness." Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0804110506
• ISBN 13: 9780804110501
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448