Customer Reviews

Luftwaffe Bomber Aces (Luftwaffe at War.)

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I disagree with previous orator. The book is well-written and throws interesting information. It contains information on the major bomber aces, groups and squadrons of the Luftwaffe Bomber Force. Although there are other reference books this one is a good looking. But further reading is obligatory.

Like the Luftwaffe Fighter Aces, Mr. Spick does a light job on this book. You can read it in a afternoon and know a little about the luftwaffe bomber aces. They do not have the glamorour of the fighter pilots, but their work is essential.
If you are looking for a comprehensive research on this subject go elsewhere. The author sims to use only a few secondary sources.
Think twice before buy it.

Over the past fifty years or so, Germany's fighter pilots in the Second World War have received a great deal of attention, but relatively little has been written about the exploits of the Luftwaffe's bomber pilots. Mike Spick's Luftwaffe Bomber Aces, part of Greenhill's "The Luftwaffe at War Series" helps to redress that previous neglect with a quick but very readable account of German bomber crews in 1939-45. Up front, this work is not the result of deep archival research in German - no primary sources were cited - and it seems to have been based mostly on post-war German memoirs. Nevertheless, since the memoirs of men like Hajo Herrmann and other bomber pilots are far less well known that Erich Hartmann or Adolf Galland, much of the material would seem fresh to most readers. Furthermore, the author has a knack for teasing out technical details and interesting combat anecdotes that made this book both enjoyable and enlightening to read.

Luftwaffe Bomber Aces consists of twelve chapters, beginning with an explanation of Luftwaffe bomber tactics and formations as well as the main aircraft in use. This section had five diagrams. In the second chapter, the author covers the Polish Campaign in 1939 and includes observations about the hit probability for different bombing methods. Chapter three covers early anti-shipping operations, including the invasion of Norway in 1940. The fifth chapter covers the Western campaign in 1940 and in addition to two diagrams on dive-bombing tactics, the authors provides a bomber order of battle for the campaign and interesting comments on the poor quality of Luftwaffe intelligence support, a fratricide incident involving the bombing of Freiburg and Luftwaffe sortie rates and losses. Chapter six covers the Battle of Britain and the Blitz in 47 pages and includes several charts on German navigation aids (Knickebein, Lorenz, X-Great), a diagram on how bombers could evade fighters and a detailed bomber order of battle for 1940. The author also begins to use some very exciting anecdotal accounts in this chapter which really liven up the text, including Hajo Hermann's account of how he accidently flopped atop a barrage balloon and then rolled upside down off the side and then recovered just before he hit the ground. These seat-of-the-paints accounts are interspersed throughout the book and give a great glimpse about the mindset and abilities of these pilots.

The next chapters cover the air war in North Africa and the Mediterranean (incl. exciting accounts of the bombing of Piraeus harbor and the dive-bombing of HMS Illustrious) and then the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Bomber orders of battle are provided for both theaters. Chapter eight covers the strategic war at sea in 1940-43, with the emphasis on anti-shipping operations by units such as KG 40. Chapters nine and ten cover the last year of the war, including the Baedeker Raids and Operation Steinbock against England. Few readers will be aware that the last major Luftwaffe bomber raid on London occurred less than two months before D-Day.

The final two chapters provide capsule biographies of German bomber, stuka and schlact aces. Since there was no standard definition of what constituted a bomber "ace" the author focus on those aircrew who were Ritterkreuz recipients. What is amazing and eye-opening going through these bios is the number of pilots who 500 or more sorties. As the author notes, few Allied bomber pilots flew more than 100 sorties, yet the Luftwaffe had some who flew over 600 sorties between 1939-45. If nothing else, the accomplishments of these aircrew (incl. some non-pilots) depicted herein is phenomenal. The author has done a service to Second World War historiography by highlighting the role that bombers played in Germany's war effort and the individual contributions of some very remarkable warriors.