Customer Reviews

Luftwaffe Aces: German Combat Pilots of World War II (Stackpole Military History Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This series of "Aces" books from Stackpole is both excellent and eye opening. Most of us who are interested in the history of World War II know the general stories. We know the broad pictures of what happened, when it happened and so on. What was missing, and I didn't even know it, was a sense of who were these men who fought so hard for so long for what most of us thing was a very bad cause.

This book tells the story of seven of the Luftwaffe Aces. Not just fighter pilots but people in all branches of the Luftwaffe: bombers, night fighters, ground support. These men (usually) had joined the Luftwaffe a few years before the war, and unless killed were still flying at the end of the war. They each completed hundreds, if not a thousand missions - not to degrade the 25-35 missions flown by the 8th air force crews.

These men were the best the Luftwaffe could put up. And good men they were. Frank Kurowski, the author of numerous books on World War II has put together a masterpiece.

...this work originally appeared in the German magazine "Der Landser" under the pen-name of Altmann and is one of Kurowski's more indifferent offerings..the writing style well fits the original 'comic' format. Kurowski is an extremely prolific author but his huge output leaves question-marks over the veracity of much of what he writes here, the rest of it is just sheer hyperbole..eg the lengthy scene wherein Heinz Bär receives a dressing down from Göring...some two pages of dialogue - yet the only two participants died long before Kurowski wrote this....there are no sources, no references, no bibliography...as far as I'm concerned this is pure 'novelisation' ..no other word for it
I also have big issues with the translation ..its a little too over the top..

There is a notable lack of detailed biographical info on many Luftwaffe pilots. Schnaufer and Kittel are legendary, while some like Weiss and Havighorst are less well-known, but deserving of attention. The information is interesting, well-written and would definitely be useful to anyone interested in the individual Luftwaffe members, most of whom do not have full biographies on them.

Not for want of trying, I just can't pick this book up for more than a few minutes at a time. What should be an interesting insight into the players lives as Luftwaffe pilots, slips into an incoherent, cut-up, poorly flowing and badly written book that really needs to be completely re-written.

Having many well written books on my shelf covering the Luftwaffe I have to say I find this book very hard to recommend. Try your local library before spending your dollars.