A History of the Luftwaffe [Mass Market Paperback]

John Killen (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam (November 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553262750
• ISBN-13: 978-0553262759
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,108,848 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars His story. NOT History of the Luftwaffe, January 7, 2001

By 

"michaeleve" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of the Luftwaffe (Mass Market Paperback)

Killen writes in a florid, flashy and very visually descriptive style. It makes the book a very easy and light read. No problem there because History books should not be dense and reserved for scholars only. It is a problem though when the style is the substance and the historical facts are of secondary importance. Then you have a story, not history. That's what we have here.

A couple of broad generalisations and sweeping statements that the author makes are mentioned here. In Chapter 6 'Air Force in Embryo' the author makes reference to German pilots "working with Mussolini's Regia Aeronautica in July 1933, developing the new theory of Blitzkrieg". Widespread use of the term 'Blitzkrieg' only came into effect following the German invasion of Poland in 1939. The word itself has been attributed to three different sources - Hitler, a British tank expert and Time Magazine. Whichever is correctly credited for coining the word makes no difference here; the point is this - the earliest possible use of the word is 1936, it can't be applied to the battlefield exercises that the Germans and Italians were practicing in 1933. Lightning war as a theory was also not new. The Prussian army had been practicing and developing upon the concept for a long time.

The author is no longer making generalisations when discussing the development of the Me 262 in Chapter 21, he's now making errors. In describing the reasons for the delay in production of this fighter jet, Killen gets his facts wrong. He states that Milch and Goring were indifferent and that "in an effort to arouse official interest, Professor Messerschmitt invited Adolf Galland to flight test an Me 262." The historical record shows that far from being indifferent Milch, from as early as January 1943 had requested an Air Ministry officer to put pressure on Messerschmitt to complete the Me 262. The Ministry subsequently accorded priority to the completion of a small number of prototypes. Further, it was Milch who requested that Galland do the flight test and it was Milch whom Galland excitedly telephoned with his now famous assessment, that it flew "as though an angel's pushing'. There was a meeting on June 27th, 1943 to which Hitler had summoned the top seven aircraft designers. Messerschmitt was there naturally and the record shows that far from promoting his jet, he actually warned Hitler against the folly of mass producing the Me 262. The reason - it's fuel consumption was higher than piston engined aircraft. Messerschmitt was well aware, but chose not to mention, the fact that the jet used a lower grade fuel than aviation spirit and that it was readily available. What strange behaviour from someone who would be credited with designing the world's first operational jet! One of the reasons behind it had to do with the personal animosity between Milch and Messerschmitt.

The bottom line with this book is that to do justice to to the whole story of the Luftwaffe, more discussion on some of the background issues and the personalities, policies and politics involved is necessary. By trying to describe every event of significance in the life of the Luftwaffe - in 300 pages - we are left with a story very light on historical facts.