Warplanes of the Third Reich [Hardcover]

William Green (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday & Company; 1st edition (June 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385057822
• ISBN-13: 978-0385057820
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,087,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ultimate guide to Hitler's air force!, March 14, 2003

By 

Robert Clark (Monroe, Washington USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Warplanes of the Third Reich (Hardcover)

Originally published by New Impression in 1972, William Green has produced the ultimate guide for researchers who study the facts and details behind the ultimate failure of the Luftwaffe to win World War Two!
With all due respects to the History and Discovery Channels, Bill Green puts the lie to the History Channel's program asserting that the Messerchmitt ME 264 was going to be used to drop a radiological WMD on New York in late 1944. In fact it was 5 Heinkel He 177A-7's that were going to drop NERVE GAS on New York in a suicidal attack. This was later cancelled when General Patton's 3rd Army was about to over run the German air base at Bordeaux-Me'rignac!
As for the frequently mentioned theory that Hitler's insistance that Me 262 jet fighters be used as bombers was the reason that the Germans quickly lost the airwar over Europe, Green dumps that allegation into the toliet on Page 7 of this book in the Preface. The jet engines the Germans were using had a life of ten hours before they had to be completely overhauled! A fact that escapes most of the cable channel TV shows!
One facinating story from the book is the fact that a six engined Junkers Ju 390 V3 bomber in January 1944 flew from Mont de Marsan France to within 12 miles of the New York coast and returned to France in a non-stop flight of 31 hours! This aircraft weighed in at 166,450 lbs, fully loaded.
If you love technical details combined with a amusing view of the characters involved in the German Aircraft industry in WW-II, you will love this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR HISTORIANS OF WW-II!, June 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Warplanes of the Third Reich (Hardcover)

William Green spent many years interviewing the principle characters who were responsible for building the German Air Force in World War II. Ernst Heinkel wrote an introduction for this book. For those of us who regard Green as the father of Military Technology Historians, This book is the final authority on the technical specifications and technical understanding of why Hitler lost World War II (thank God!)

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get the British reprint versions., June 10, 2008

By 

G. LYON "w8t4me-in-lobby" (Wash., DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Warplanes of the Third Reich (Hardcover)

This is a classic book on German WWII military aircraft.
It is excellent, but DO NOT buy the more recent, cheap US-printed versions.
I had one, but made this purchase (used book) to get a Doubleday fourth impression of 1979, printed in Great Britain. Why?--compare the photos. There is much photo detail in this fourth impression (made on better paper) that is just missing on cheaper reprints.