Synopsis
Nearly 400 color photographs reveal fascinating detail on the planes and the men of the Luftwaffe, as they progressed from seeming invincibility to utter defeat.
Eighty years after its creation, the Luftwaffe is still one of the most fascinating forces in the history of aviation. A companion to Luftwaffe in Colour Volume 1, which covered the victory years from 1939 up to Spring 1942, this volume with nearly 400 images contains even more fascinating material on the machines of the Luftwaffe and the men who flew them, as their fate took an increasingly grim path.
Initially the Luftwaffe ruled the skies but thereafter fought an increasingly futile war of attrition which when combined with vital strategic mistakes in aircraft production, was its death knell. Despite this the Luftwaffe produced the most successful air aces of all time who feature in this volume. Among many remarkable images we see one of the last Junkers 87 B-2 operational on the front line on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1942-1943, the huge BV 222 V-5 of Lufttransportstaffel in the port of Heraklion in late 1942, pilots in Tunisia in 1943, the aces Hans Philipp, Wolfgang Spate and Heinz Schnaufer and a vivid demonstration of the reversal in fortunes in 1944 as Allied bombers destroy 106 places, engulfing them in fire at Schwabisch-Hall on German soil.
In this painstakingly pieced together collection, originally published in France, the full detail behind the propaganda is once more revealed, in rare colour photographs.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part X Face-to-Face with the Soviet Steamroller
Part XI The Mediterranean Front
Part XII The West: From One Landing to the Next
Part XIII Second Line and Training Units
Part XIV The Eagle Falls
About the Author
Christophe Cony who lives in France is a well-respected World War II aviation historian who has worked on numerous books and magazine articles for the leading French military aviation publisher, Lela Press. He is the co-author of Luftwaffe in Colour Volume 1: The Victory Years 1939-1942
Born in Belgium in 1953, Jean-Louis Roba has a degree in law. Interested in history at an early age, he has met hundreds of Second World War veterans and amassed a large collection of personal accounts, documents and photographs. His numerous visits to archives worldwide have facilitated the writing of some 80 books on this period, mainly related to the war in the air. However, his interest is mainly focused on subjects that are not well known or rarely studied, such as the service history of the Me 323 transport aircraft, the history of JG 53, Beute or captured aircraft in Luftwaffe service and various studies of Belgian pilots in the RAF during the Second World War. He contributed several volumes to the ground-breaking “Luftwaffe in Colour” Casemate series. Neglected theaters of war are also one of his favorite subjects – he has compiled books on the Germans in the Aegean, the air battles over Romania and a multi-volume history of Luftwaffe seaplanes. In addition to these books, Jean-Louis Roba continues to publish articles in specialist journals.
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