Goering's Grenadiers: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions, 1942-1945 [Hardcover]

Antonio J. Muņoz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2002

The complete history of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) field divisions- units formed from excess personnel and created to enlarge Hermann Goering's prestige. These unique units fought on the ground but belonged to Hermann Goering's Luftwaffe. They fought on all fronts and suffered accordingly. Their complete military history has never before been covered in such a large and thorough work with over 100 battle maps, 26 tables, 80 rare photos, and six full color uniform plates by renowned military artist, Darko Pavlovic.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Antonio Munoz has been researching the German Armed Forces in World War II for well over 25 years. He has published 15 books and is considered an expert on the subject of foreign volunteers in the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. In his latest work, he tackles the history of the German Air Force field divisions- a subject that has up until now been ignored almost completely by military historians- in any language!

Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Europa Books Inc. (March 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891227408
• ISBN-13: 978-1891227400
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,315,096 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing research on fascinating warriors, January 18, 2004

By 

Lars Gyllenhaal (Rosvik, Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Goering's Grenadiers: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions, 1942-1945 (Hardcover)

This is the tragic story of how 200 000 smart and often technically gifted soldiers were squandered by the incompetence, or rather: the policies, of Goering and Hitler. Yes, as many as 200 000 men served in the almost unknown Luftwaffe field divisions, set up because Goering couldn't imagine handing over his surplus men to the army, badly in need of manpower.

What you get is 380 fact-filled pages with an unusual high amount of tactical maps, several good photos never before published and some facsimile documents. The text is to a great extent based on ground-breaking research in archives by the author himself.

Of greatest interest for armor buffs like yours truly is the photo of a TK-3 tankette pulling a 37 mm PaK in Norway 1943. Amazing!

The book is nicely bound and as far as the textual info and the research behind is concerned I'd give this book five stars. There is no question that it is a must for any serious student of the Luftwaffe ground units. I only wish there'd been more photos and personal accounts. Perhaps a follow-up will come with more photos and info on the vehicles, uniforms and with some small-scale accounts? Hopefully the author will one day produce such a book.

Finally, its pretty amazing to again learn how Hitler could meddle in small details like moving the 12th LW FeldDiv. As CINC he should have stuck to strategy. No, I correct myself - he should never have left Vienna!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 11, 2008

By 

Robert A., Shoaf (PITTSBURGH,PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Goering's Grenadiers: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions, 1942-1945 (Hardcover)

There is little on this subject, at least in English, and I was hoping for a much stronger effort than this volume. Perhaps for $25-30, it might be worthwhile, albeit flawed, but for $50, definitely not. The illustrations are few, and not well reproduced, the maps are actually too numerous, yet a mix of good, and amateurish, and there is a distinct lack of personal accounts. It is a dry recounting of the eventual failure of virtually all of these poorly trained, and I surmise, poorly motivated combat formations. I applaud the author's intent, but not his results. One would be better off with the old Osprey title " Luftwaffe Field Divisions" , for much less money.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference material on the Luftwaffe Field divisions, September 28, 2008

By 

J. Monty (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Goering's Grenadiers: The Luftwaffe Field Divisions, 1942-1945 (Hardcover)

I will admit when I first received this book and paged through it I was a little disappointed. I was expecting detailed info on uniforms, high quality photos, etc. However recently I found myself needing info on a specific Luftwaffe Pioneer Battalion (after coming across period award documents relating to the particular unit). I found myself wondering how I would find more info about this unit? Searching the net I found very little to go on, looking in a popular "order of battle" book series it appeared to only cover Heer/Waffen SS units, and my Osprey military series books weren't any help either. So I picked up my copy of "Goring's Grenadiers" Luftwaffe Field Divisions book and started to page through it. To my surprise I found a wealth of info on the exact unit I was searching for and more, much more (commanding officers, specific dates and battles, complete unit organization, illustrations of two different versions of unit insignia, detailed maps of combat actions, unit timeline, etc). Without this particular book I would have been completely out of luck.

If you are seeking a book written for casual reading with exciting "Hollywood-type" accounts about the actions of various soldiers who were part of the Luftwaffe Field Divisions this is NOT that book. If you are looking for a comprehensive and accurate unit history containing detailed info on each of the Luftwaffe Field Divisions and the smaller units they were made up of, you are in luck! This book is a must for the World War II amateur/pro historian, WWII militaria collector, or anyone who is researching or needs more info about a specific Luftwaffe Field Division from an English-language source. I highly recommend it!