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One of the most important, and yet least publicised, components of the front-line Luftwaffe was the Schlacht, or ground attack, arm. This book details the Schlacht units who were in the thick of the fighting from the first day of the war until the last. They played a vital part in the heady successes of the early Blitzkrieg campaigns and went on to perform an equally essential role in the dark hours of last ditch defence and ultimate defeat. In between, they fought in all defensive battles: on the eastern front at Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin; in the west, by night, over Normandy, the Ardennes and the Rhine.
The 'storm troopers' of the Luftwaffe, the elite Strumgruppen units comprised the most heavily armed and armoured fighter interceptors ever produced by the Germans. Their role was to smash like a mighty fist through the massed ranks of USAAF daylight bombers. Only volunteers could serve with these elite units, and each pilot was trained to close with the enemy and engage him in extremely short-range combat, attacking from the front and the rear in tight arrowhead formations. In exceptional circumstances pilots would even ram their enemy. This book chronicles the brief, but violent, career of the Sturmgruppen during the dark days of 1944-45, employing first-hand accounts and rare archival photography.
The air war over the Steppes was more than a brutal clash in which might alone triumphed. It was a conflict that saw tactical and technological innovation as the Soviet air force faced off against Herman Göring's Luftwaffe. As Germany and the Soviet Union battled for victory on the Eastern Front they had to overcome significant strategic and industrial problems, as well as fighting against the extreme weather conditions of the East. These factors combined with the huge array of aircraft used on the Eastern Front to create one of the most compelling conflicts of the war. Told primarily from the strategic and command perspective, this account offers a detailed analysis of this oft-overlooked air war, tracing the clashes between Germany and the Soviet Union over the course of World War II. Historical photographs complement the examination as author E. R. Hooton explores these epic aerial battles between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union.
Hitler's Eagles charts the turbulent history of the Luftwaffe from its earliest days to its downfall. At the beginning of World War II, the Luftwaffe was the world's most advanced air force. With superior tactics, aircraft and training, it cut through opposition air forces. Despite this auspicious beginning, by 1945 the Luftwaffe was a dying force. The Allies were destroying German aircraft at unequal rates, and Luftwaffe aviators were dying in their thousands in an unbalanced battle to save Germany from destruction. Once Hitler was in power, the Luftwaffe came out of the shadows and expanded under a massive rearmament programme, then embarked upon the war that would define its existence. As well as providing a detailed history of the Luftwaffe's combat experience, the book expands on its human and material aspects. Aces and commanders are profiled and aircraft are described both technologically and tactically. The book conveys all the drama of the Luftwaffe's existence with Osprey's famous aviation artwork bringing the story incomparably to life.
Jagdgeschwader 52 (JG 52) was the most successful and highest-scoring fighter unit, not just in Germany's World War 2 Luftwaffe, but in the entire annals of aviation history. No other fighter group has ever come close to matching its staggering total of around 9000 enemy aircraft shot down in combat. And yet, because much of that combat took place over the tractless wastes of the Russian front, very little has been written in English about the exploits of this charismatic unit. This book provides a full combat history of JG 52 and its members, including the three top-scoring aces of all time, who claimed a total of 900 victories between them.
A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones. The last months of World War II on the Eastern Front saw a ferocious fight between two very different air forces. Soviet Air Force (VVS) Commander-in-Chief Alexander Novikov assembled 7,500 aircraft in three powerful air armies to support the final assault on Berlin. The Luftwaffe employed some of its most advanced weapons including the Me 262 jet and Mistel remotely-guided bomb aircraft. Using photos, 3D diagrams, maps and battlescene artwork, William E. Hiestand, a military analyst with a longstanding interest in Soviet military history, explains how Germany's use of high-tech weaponry and massed Soviet air assaults was not just the culmination of World War II air combat, but also pointed to how the future rivalry with NATO would play out. The VVS used powerful and flexible air armies to control and employ its huge force of aircraft – organizational and employment concepts that would shape Soviet plans and preparations for combat during the Cold War. For the first time, this volume explains how air power helped win the war on the Eastern Front, and how victory shaped Soviet air power doctrine for the decades to come.
La-5/7 vs Fw 190 by Dmitriy Khazanov,Aleksander Medved Pdf
Soviet fighter aviation suffered terribly at the hands of the Jagdwaffe in the first year of the war in the east and, with the arrival of JG 51 and its Fw 190s on the Stalingrad Front in September 1942, things only got worse. However, help was on its way in the form of the La-5. Tougher, faster, and with a greater rate of climb than its predecessors, most were flow by a new generation of better-trained pilots led by combat veterans. These new fighters soon found themselves pitted into action on the Central Sector against the equally new Fw 190As of JG 51. From then on, these two fighters would battle it out in the skies over the Eastern Front. This book tells the complete story of the battles between these two important fighters.
Air Combat by Dmitriy Khazanov,Aleksander Medved,Edward M. Young,Tony Holmes Pdf
The battle for the skies in World War II fuelled a race between rival air forces to develop ever faster and more capable fighter aircraft – and the struggle for air superiority was never over until the war itself ended. This volume explores four clashes of some of the finest planes and pilots, in key theatres of the war: Spitfires duelling the formidable Bf 109 over the Channel, the Fw 190 battling the Soviet La 5 and 7 on the Eastern Front, the F4F Wildcat in a desperate clash with the legendary A6M Zero-sen, and the F4U Corsair in combat with the second-generation Japanese Ki-84 in the closing days of the war. Fully illustrated with contemporary photographs, maps and colour artwork, Air Combat conveys the full story behind these dramatic aviation duels.
Few battles attract interest so much as the Battle of Kursk. Operation Zitadelle, the code name given by Hitler to the Wehrmacht's last offensive on the Eastern Front in July 1943, has acquired an almost mythic status as one of the greatest clashes of armour in the history of warfare. Long been depicted as the 'the swan song of the German tank arm' by virtue of the huge tank losses experienced by the Germans; the reality, in light of the emergence of new information proved it to be anything but, with historians previously accepting without question exaggerated Soviet accounts of the battle. For all the resources devoted to this operation by the Germans, Zitadelle was an abysmal failure; and whilst they were not outfought by the Red Army at Kursk, they were out-thought by commanders of outstanding quality. Zitadelle describes the German and Soviet tactics and explores the realities of the battles on sodden ground that culminated in the defeat of the panzers and the Soviet advance on the Reich.
Junkers Ju 87 Stukageschwader of the Russian Front by John Weal Pdf
This final volume of the Osprey trilogy on the Luftwaffe dive-bomber charts its fortunes in the toughest theatre of all: the Eastern Front. Written by John Weal, a leading authority on the Luftwaffe, this book examines how, following its comprehensive defeat over the English Channel in the summer of 1940, the Stuka was able to restore its fearsome reputation over the Eastern Front.
Bf 109 Jabo Units in the West by Malcolm V. Lowe Pdf
Using specially commissioned artwork and detailing technical specifications, this book explores the Bf 109's different roles occasioned by wartime necessity, from its employment as a fighter to its evolution as a fighter-bomber. One of the principal types in the Luftwaffe's inventory at the beginning of World War II, the piston-engined Bf 109 was central to the many initial victories that the Germans achieved before coming up against the unbeatable RAF during the Battle of Britain. Nevertheless, by the second half of 1940 the Bf 109's operability was widened due to operational needs and it was flown as a fighter-bomber for precision attacks in Southern England. At first ad hoc conversions were made 'in the field' to allow the aircraft to carry a bomb or extra fuel tank. Such modifications were soon formalised by Messerschmitt, which created the Jabo Bf 109s. Drawing from pilots' first-hand accounts, author Malcolm V. Lowe explores the number of specialised units, including Lehrgeschwader 2 and dedicated fighter-bomber sections of standard fighter units such as 10. Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 26, which flew this highly specialised fighter-bomber. Including technical specifications, rare photographs and outstanding artwork, this book explores the Jabo versions of the Bf 109E, F and G both on the production line and with the addition of Rüstsätze field conversion kits.
Dive-bomber and Ground-attack Units of the Luftwaffe 1933-1945 : a Reference Source: Units, formation and redesignation, commanders, key operations, codes, emblems by Henry L. De Zeng Pdf
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning and bestselling author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, “The most extraordinary book about the Spanish Civil War ever encountered” (The Washington Post). The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) inspired and haunted an extraordinary number of exceptional artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and John Dos Passos. The idealism of the cause—defending democracy from fascism at a time when Europe was darkening toward another world war—and the brutality of the conflict inspired some of their best work: Guernica, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homage to Catalonia, The Spanish Earth. The war spurred breakthroughs in military and medical technology as well. New aircraft, new weapons, new tactics and strategy all emerged during this time. Progress arose from the horror: the doctors and nurses who volunteered to serve with the Spanish defenders devised major advances in battlefield surgery and frontline blood transfusion. In those ways, and in many others, the Spanish Civil War served as a test bed for World War II, and for the entire twentieth century. From the life of John James Audubon to the invention of the atomic bomb, readers have long relied on Richard Rhodes to explain, distill, and dramatize crucial moments in history. Now, he takes us into battlefields and bomb shelters, into the studios of artists, into the crowded wards of war hospitals, and into the hearts and minds of a rich cast of characters to show how the ideological, aesthetic, and technological developments that emerged in Spain and changed the world forever. “Hell and Good Company is vivid and emotive…thrilling reading” (The Wall Street Journal).
Lieutenant General Pete Quesada And Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Von Richthofen What Made Them Great? by Major Jeremy Kreuder Pdf
During World War II, certain air force generals demonstrated an uncommon ability to succeed on the battlefield in spite of considerable obstacles. Whether solving operational issues, developing technical innovations, or devising logistic solutions, these commanders transcended service-centric doctrine and loyalties in order to achieve their objectives. Are there common elements among their personal background, professional education, officer development, and operational experience that helps explain their success? This paper will examine two contemporary tactical airpower commanders, Lieutenant General Elwood “Pete” Quesada and Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr Von Richthofen, in an attempt to answer this important question. This study comprises an analysis of two contemporary tactical airpower commanders from World War II, Lieutenant General Elwood “Pete” Quesada and Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr Von Richthofen. It attempts to determine how they succeeded where others failed. Whether solving operational issues, developing technical innovations, or devising logistic solutions, these commanders transcended service-centric doctrine and loyalties in order to achieve their objectives. The author searches for common elements among their personal background, professional education, officer development, and operational experience that help explain their uncommon triumphs. The analysis includes both external and internal factors to determine which is dominant. The final section includes five recommendations intended for those who conduct officer accession, professional development, and promotion boards. The ultimate objective is to provide timeless criteria that transcend technological advancements and the changing character of war.
Eagles over the Sea, 1943–45 by Lawrence Paterson Pdf
This is the second volume of Lawrence Paterson’s detailed account of all the Luftwaffe’s naval operations during World War II. The first volume took the story up to 1942, and by the end of that year Hermann Göring’s Reich Air Ministry had subsumed nearly every aspect of Wehrmacht maritime aviation. Kriegsmarine attempts to develop an independent Fleet Air Arm had been perpetually frustrated, reflecting the chaotic nature of the Third Reich’s internal military and political mechanics. Driven more by vanity than operational prudence, the Luftwaffe had continually thwarted the advancement of maritime aviation, and by 1942 began to reap the whirlwind it had created. The U-boat war hung precariously in the balance, the lack of well trained and properly equipped aerial reconnaissance suddenly assuming greater importance than ever before. During 1943 the nature of Germany’s war mutated and by its close the Allies were on the offensive in nearly all theatres. This volume resumes the story with Operation Torch in November 1942, when Germany faced an Allied seaborne invasion of North Africa that it was ill-equipped to counter by land, sea or air; and the spectre of even greater invasion armadas loomed on both the southern and western fronts during the months that followed. Facing the Russians, maritime air units were stripped to the bone, those precious few formations available shunted rapidly between military crisis points until barely able to function. The rise of Luftwaffe maritime operations described in the author’s first volume now became, from 1942 onwards, a fall of catastrophic proportions as frequently undertrained crews flew increasingly obsolete aircraft against odds that had become overwhelming. The Luftwaffe was paying the price for its pre-war lack of cohesive strategic planning, none more so than its beleaguered maritime specialists. The author covers this story across all the theatres of the war and in doing so gives the reader a complete and coherent picture of all the Luftwaffe’s naval operations. Heavily illustrated throughout, this detailed and exciting narrative will be of huge appeal to both naval and aviation historians and enthusiasts.