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In this exciting book Mike Spick shows how the Luftwaffe's leading fighter pilots were able to outscore their allied counterparts so effectively and completely during the Second World War. When the records of the Jagdflieger pilots became available after the war, they were initially greeted with incredulity - the highest claim was for 352 kills, and more than 100 pilots had recorded more than 100 victories. However postwar research proved that these claims had in fact been made in good faith and confirmation had only been given after rigorous checking.To discover the secret of this success, aviation history expert Mike Spick examines the exploits of these aces and sets out the context in which it took place. Every major theater is covered in detail including the conditions peculiar to each: climate, relative numerical and qualitative strengths, the presence or absence of radar and other measures, and the relative merits of the planes being flown.He focuses on the methods and tactics used by individual aces and uses firsthand sources wherever possible to put the reader right alongside the pilot in the cockpit.
The German bomber fleet operated as a terror weapon of the Nazi regime during the early years of the Second World War - bombing and killing thousands of innocent civilians during the Blitz. As the tide of battle turned, the Luftwaffe's attention was refocused on the deserts of North Africa and the frozen steppes of the Eastern Front, where bombers and ground-attack aircraft played a key role in supporting German army units.Luftwaffe Bombers offers more than 200 highly detailed full color profiles from world renowned artist Claes Sundin, covering all of Germany's most famous bomber, dive-bomber, close-support and ground-attack types - the Dornier Do 17 and Do 217, Heinkel He 111 and He 177, J...
In assembling the first installment of a projected six-volume series documenting the air war on the Eastern Front, the authors combed hitherto unexplored archives in the former Soviet Union to produce the first balanced history of the subject. More than 180 photographs that have never been seen by any reading public accompany color maps and an authoritative text debunking 50-year-old Western beliefs about Operation Barbarossa. The lives and accomplishments of Soviet fighter aces, about which little, if anything, has previously been published, make this groundbreaking history essential reading for both enthusiasts and casual history buffs.
A comprehensive, photo-filled account of the six-week-long Battle of the Bulge, when panzers slipped through the forest and took the Allies by surprise. In December 1944, just as World War II appeared to be winding down, Hitler shocked the world with a powerful German counteroffensive that cracked the center of the American front. The attack came through the Ardennes, the hilly and forested area in eastern Belgium and Luxembourg that the Allies had considered a “quiet” sector. Instead, for the second time in the war, the Germans used it as a stealthy avenue of approach for their panzers. Much of US First Army was overrun, and thousands of prisoners were taken as the Germans forged a fift...
This title describes the interwoven fates of Luftwaffe fighter aces Hermann Graf and Alfred Grislawski on the Eastern Front between 1941-1943 and 1944-45. It asks whether Graf was identical to the Major von Graf who was shot down, and whether he co-operated with the Soviets in captivity.
• Hundreds of photos--many of them rare--of Tiger tanks and their crews • Color illustrations by Jean Restayn focus on markings, camouflage, and insignia • Inventories and timelines for each unit In this follow-up to Tigers in Combat I (0-8117-3171-5), Wolfgang Schneider turns his attention to the Tiger tanks of the Waffen-SS and the Wehrmacht's "named" units, such as the Großdeutschland Division, Company Hummel, and Tiger Group Meyer. Based on combat diaries, the text tells the history of each unit, but most of the book is devoted to photos of the tanks and the men who manned them. It offers as unique and comprehensive a look at these lethal machines as is possible decades after World War II.
The stunning success of Adolf Hitler's ground offensives during the first year of the Second World War was due in no small part to the new tanks fielded by his armies. The Panzer III and IV were well-armed, relatively fast and equipped to work closely with motorised infantry. However, when Germany's armies invaded the Soviet Union they were shocked to encounter the revolutionary T-34 with its long-barrelled gun and sloped armour. Early battles against this machine sparked an arms race that would result in some of the Second World War's most powerful armoured fighting vehicles - the Tiger I, Panther and Tiger II. Also entering the fray were deadly tank destroyers such as the Jagdpanther, the StuG III and the monstrous Jagdtiger. All these vehicles and more are depicted in glorious detail by legendary profiles artist Claes Sundin in Panzer: German WW2 Designs.
Volume 3, has been subtitled Everything for Stalingrad and covers the German summer offensive in 1942; the subsequent fierce air battles over the Caucasus; the Luftwaffe's onslaught on Convoy PQ-17; the hard air war over the Central and Northern combat zones, when the Soviets launched their relief offensives in the summer and fall of 1942; and, mainly, the huge Air Battle over Stalingrad. Similar to Volume 2, Volume 3 will contain a large number of photos and 37 high-quality aircraft color profiles, by one of the best aircraft profile artists in the world--Claes Sundin.
The distance to the Spitfire diminished to 100 metres - by which time the wings of the Spitfire covered the circle in his gunsight - and Ostermann was still holding his fire. In the next second, the Spitfire opened fire and the Bf 109 in front dived away. This was the moment Ostermann had been waiting for. He pressed both firing buttons and immediately scored a series of direct hits. The Spitfire burst into flames and descended vertically, leaving a grey plume of smoke. A moment later a sudden white eruption of spray in the sea below indicated the point where the Spitfire went in¿ From a young, inexperienced, novice pilot who struggled to master the twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstö...
"A fascinating and thoroughly researched account of Focke-Wulf 190 units, personnel and operations in the Sicilian campaign of the summer of 1943. Based on a variety of primary sources, this book describes many of the very eventful missions flown by a handful of Luftwaffe Fw 190s against a multitude of British and American land and naval targets. The book features numerous firsthand accounts from German, British, American and Commonwealth personnel, along with a wide selection of photographs and maps, and color aircraft profiles by well-known aviation artist Claes Sundin. The reader is also given a good idea of daily life for the Fw 190 pilots and mechanics during what was a long, hot Medite...