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The Luftwaffe War Diaries: The German Air Force in World War II (Reprint)

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Since the end of WW II, it seems that occurred an epidemy of books written about the Luftwaffe, mainly by American / British writers, with bombastic titles like " Rise and Fall of The Luftwaffe", "History of the Luftwaffe"..etc... FOrget all about them. Cajus Bekker's book is the best ever written about the subject and comes from a remarkable neutral point of view, considering the fact the writer is a German. In only one volume, he sets up the reader in the real demands placed upon the Luftwaffe even before the War, and shows the way that the German publicity machine worked over their initial sucesses. HE also describes all kinds of combat squadrons, including bomber, dive-bombers and reccon, without talking only about the fighter pilots, differently from so many books. Great! A War Aviation fan must have this one!!

Like the title explains, this book offers commentary from various echelons in the German Air Force on the planning and production of fighters and bombers, the deployment and assignments, the policy, the conflicts and the strategic misuse of this vital branch of the military. As well, the author gives a great deal of background on the manufacturers, the competition for the new air speed record, the celebrated pilots who tested the new marvels, the hardships of restricted supply, the motives and explanations of the awarding of production contracts, and many more insights into the German Luftwaffe from its inception, and from the ground up. While a little too technical in naming every formation and an insistence on listing every make and model of plane for every sortie, this book has a lot of valuable information on the German military apparatus, specifically the air arm.

A very interesting book that offers excellent insight into the German strategy in all aspects of the Luftwaffe's battle's during WWII. This book cover's the whole spectrum of Luftwaffe units; from the classic fighter and bomber squadron's, to the Paratroop Division's, to the 88mm Flak units accompanying the Wehrmacht, to the Armored/Mechanized units like the Hermann Goring Division.

The Luftwaffe War Diaries is a well balanced book that discusses strategic planning of the war at the highest level, including production planning, but also has many highly interesting tales of personal heroism and gallantry.

A must read for any historian.

The author expatiates on operations of German airforce in different theatres of war -Poland ,Norway ,France and Low countries ,Balkans ,Russia- when Hitlers's conquest was at its height .

The principal credit for making "Blitzkrieg' a success must go to Luftwaffe. Its support of ground forces -direct ,indirect -brought the Polish campaign to a swift conclusion .Later it helped the German armour to breach French defences at Sedan on May 13,1940.Allied airforces intervened ,made a desperate attempt to block Guderian's tanks from crossing river Meuse which was repulsed by the Luftwaffe fighters.Once the breakthrough was effected, panzers rattled and rumbled towards the English channel. In the process they outran infantry cover, consequently the Luftwaffe was assigned the task of protecting vulnerable flanks of armoured thrust which it did brilliantly.

On May 21-22 ,1941 ,Royal Navy in Cretan waters was exposed to the full fury of German airforce.This led to the first air-sea battle in the history of war .After suffering crippling losses the English fleet had to retreat having paid the penalty of operating without aircover.

Luftwaffe was largely responsible for the triumphant German advance upto the gates of Moscow.

The book has exploded a few myths. The strength of German airforce during the beginning of hostilities was grossly exaggerated by Anglo-American historians of the war.During German invasion of Poland, Luftwaffe had at its disposal only 1302 first-line aircraft. Anglo-Saxon media has reviled the German bombing of Warsaw,Rotterdam. The author ,however, has given different interpretation on what caused this unfortunate bombing,.Both cities were barricaded and bitterly defended. Repeated attempts to make them surrender through negotiations failed.

The book has a few drawbacks. The section dealing with ' Battle of Britain ' appears outdated. Ever since the publication of Group Captain F.W.Winterbotham's book 'Ultra Secret" officially-recognized version on History of World War sorely needed re-interpretation . But the author can be absolved of this lapse since he wrote the book at a time when Ultra was still a top secret.Author never had the privilege to know that Luffwaffe ciphers had been broken and its operational orders read by the British intelligence.

Also ignored are developments in the field of electronics .Just as the Battle of Atlantic, technical progress made a deep impact on the fortunes of airwar.Germans had radars like Freya, Wurzburg to detect the approach of Allied bomber formations.British countered by deploying jammers (Mandrel,Carpet) on fighter planes escorting bomber formations helping them to penetrate German airspace, Then there were devices like Liechtenstein SN2,RWR(radar warning receiver) called Naxos, The former was an airborne interception radar, Latter a passive device capable of sensing radar emisssions from Allied bombers which were picked up at double the distance at which bombers radars were able to detect German fighters. This gave fighters ample time to plan manoeuvres . Naxos picked up emisssions from H2's radar installed on RAF pathfinder force ( PFF) which were assigned the task of marking targets to be bombed by dropping phosphorous flares.Naxos guided the fighters directly to this aircraft.The second German RWR was Flensburg which received emissions from British airborne radar Monica fitted on to the tail of RAF bombers.Thanks to progress in the field of electronics total destruction of Berlin in the spring of 1944 was averted.

Upon reading the book I had a feeling that Herr Bekker wrote it with the intention of extolling the achievments of Luftwaffe. No doubt Germans had superior planes at their disposal. Till the advent of American P-51 Mustang fighters Luftwaffe's FW-190 was the best air superiority fighter.This was amply demonstrated during the dog fights with the British Spitfires in 1941,42,43 above the English channel. Much before the outbreak of war Germans had experimented rocket,turbo-jet powered planes (HE-176,HE-178) However the lead was not exploited and the advantage squandered due to myopia of Luftwaffe General Staff.

Reason for the decline of Luftwaffe is not difficult to seek. Being predominantly tactical airforce whose mission was to support the army in its blitz campaigns, it lacked strategic offensive and operational level defensive capabilities. Conceived for short-term campaigns the changing nature of war forced Luftwaffe to embark on number of tasks and its weakness was soon exposed .The belief that Germany had won the war led to curtailment in long-term planning and development.As a result the airforce was saddled with obsolete aircraft.

Finally, Hitler's insistence on offensive air operation meant that the potentialities of Germany's first operational jet fighter (ME-262) could not be fully exploited.

Other reviewers have covered the various Luftwaffe campaigns discussed in this book, and I will instead limit my review to the German blitzkrieg against Poland in 1939. This review is based on the original (1968) edition.

What has found its way into innumerable books and encyclopedias is a canard. Bekker comments: "Despite all assertions to the contrary, the Polish Air Force was not destroyed on the ground in the first two days of fighting. The bomber brigade in particular continued to make determined attacks on the German forces up to September 16th. However, the Polish aircraft, inferior both in numbers and in design, could hardly contest the supremacy of the Luftwaffe in the air." (p. 59).

The Polish aircraft had previously been scattered to secret airfields and camouflaged (there are photos--not in this book--of the planes covered with sod or branches). So what did the Luftwaffe's first-day hoped-for knockout blow against the Polish Air Force actually accomplish? Not much, according to a secret report cited by Bekker: "All the aircraft destroyed on the ground were old training machines...As for the attacks on the aircraft industry, they had done more harm than good, for now the Germans could not use it themselves. The report, of course, remained top secret. The public was kept in complete ignorance. They were told only of the non-stop bombing raids, the peerless power of the Luftwaffe, and above all the morale-shattering effect of the dive bomber." (p. 38)

Despite the extreme asymmetry favoring the Germans (using modern terms), the conquest of Poland was no cakewalk. Bekker continues: "The `lightning campaign' against Poland was no easy undertaking. The Poles put up stubborn resistance, and although the campaign lasted only four weeks in all [actually five--not counting subsequent large-scale guerilla warfare], the Luftwaffe lost during this time no less than 743 men and 285 aircraft, including 109 bombers and Stukas...(p. 59). An additional 279 German aircraft were damaged enough to be reckoned lost (p. 364). It is sobering to realize that the German enemy had a greater respect for the Polish fighting forces than did the English and American Allies!

Although communications had been paralyzed by relentless German bombing (part of the "shock" in the modern phrase "shock and awe"), the Polish Air Force nevertheless managed to deliver some militarily-significant blows against the invading German land forces. Bekker writes: "But now, having overcome its first bewilderment, the Polish bomber brigade also made itself felt. Taking the defenses unawares, the squadrons launched a number of attacks on the spearhead of the German armored forces...The following day the 1st and 4th Panzer Divisions, pushing ahead of the 10th Army suffered heavy losses from the air on reaching Radomsko, and likewise called for help from the Luftwaffe." (p. 37)

What if France and England had actually fulfilled their treaty obligations to Poland and attacked western Germany in September 1939? It would have made for a more interesting war, to say the least, because the Luftwaffe was unprepared for such a development. Bekker admits: "...at this early stage of its build-up, when Hitler chose to go to war, it was fit for a short blitzkrieg on ONE front." (p. 24; emphasis is Bekker's)

Unfortunately, Bekker would have us believe that the Luftwaffe attacked only military targets in Poland, and that civilian casualties were solely the result of collateral damage (p. 57). The truth is entirely different. The Luftwaffe in fact systematically bombed civilian targets (including national shrines) that had no military significance of any kind (see the Szymon Datner study summarized in the Peczkis review of HANS FRANK, by Martyn Housden).

If you are looking for a book that tells about the air war in Europe from the German Luftwaffe point of view, you found it. This book is an excellent, thoroughly researched, and well-written resource, told in very accessible language through the translation. This is not a long list of dates and numbers, though it has many detailed tables. This book is full of personal accounts from the men who flew and maintained and led the Luftwaffe, interspersed with enough numbers to provide a researcher with data. RECOMMENDED!

This is a well written and meticulously researched account of the Luftwaffe in WWII. It brings out the internal conflicts between the various branches of the German military and the conflicting convictions of the various generals under Hitler, all of which were detrimental to Germany's war effort. Hitler and Goring both come off looking like the bumbling egomaniacs they were with a propensity for making the wrong decision. Hitler seemingly couldn't finish anything he started. He'd jump from one theater of operations to another without a definitive conclusion of the theater he just left. At the start of the war, Hitler and his generals failed to develop new war machinery on the egotistical conviction that it would be unnecessary because they would have the war won with existing materiel before it was needed.

There is one exasperating aspect of reading this book. The author jumps around in time more than is comfortable for the reader. He will frequently leave off in, say, 1944 and go back to describing a scene from 1939, etc.

This book is the only English language reprint that I could find of the many wartime history books by the German author Cajus Bekker, to have it delivered as a gift for a friend in California, who is an enthusiast in vintage cars and aircraft technology. Actually I came across when editing my father's pre- to post-war German autobio with some fact references from this author's books. I read the German language original copy and compared it via AMAZON's "LOOK INSIDE" feature with the English language reprint to find that the translation was accurate and appropriate even considering the author's entertaining novel style (not exactly a thriller type of book).

It was intreaguing for me to read about the first long range rocket missiles and the first jet fighters, their designs, development, production and testflights (all under foreign bombardment conditions) as well as the last minute "crash course" pilot training that made all previous effort and investment to finally fail and collapse - a sad example of how bad management can jeopardize an innovative, ambitious and expensive mission. The book closes with a resume of critizism on wrong judgement and mismanagement by the governing elite and on lessons to be learned by later generations to avoid a next world war tragedy. The author's story is based on his own experience and insight as well as on eye-witness interviews. He is obviously trying to take an objective point of view relying on his forensic search in archive material as far as available soon after the war. The German language original version is no longer available as a reprint so that I had to buy it second hand to complete my father-in-law's comprehensive historical library, that contains more material on the first jet fighter assembly hangars (a construction of his father that survived all destruction and demolition attempts by the US army even after the invasion).

The book is recommendable for everyone interested in WW2 and avionic or aerospace history. Facts and figures are wrapped-up in easy to read story chapters with a lot of illustrations.

Bekker writes accessibly and in a well thought out manner. Some histories are dry, but the format of this book in chronological fashion where some time lines overlap, he handles in a reasonable manner.

I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in history, specifically WWII aviation.

Cheers

This book has many quotes, numbers, etc. but very few references to back them up. The author may say something like so-and-so said this but no references are provided. Even overlooking this problem, the narrative is dry.