Voices From The Luftwaffe

"It is the leaders of the country who determine the policy ...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders." Hermann Gšring ??This is the history of the Luftwaffe through the eyes of those who served in combat. The rise of the Luftwaffe from the ashes of the Great War is traced through recollections of Luftwaffe personnel who manned the gliders and perpetuated the charade that this was a civilian undertaking. The heady optimism generated by the stunning successes of the Blitzkrieg era are soon overturned by the grim experiences of the Battle of Britain and the life or death fight for the skies over Germany as the road leads ever downwards to defeat and Hitler's promised GštterdŠmmerung. The book is illustrated throughout with extensive selections from Der Adler, the wartime Luftwaffe propaganda magazine. This book is part of the 'Hitler's War Machine' series, a new military history range compiled and edited by Emmy Award winning author and historian Bob Carruthers. The series draws on primary sources and contemporary documents to provide a new insight into the true nature of Hitler's Wehrmacht. The series consultant is David Mcwhinnie creator of the award winning PBS series 'Battlefield'.

Interviews with more than 150 Germans who witnessed and participated in, or resisted, the rise of Adolph Hitler. Takes material of epic history and pesents it in the form of individual human experiences of men, women, and children subjected to the pressures of total war in a fascist state.

Tells the story of the air battles of the Second World War in the voices of those who took part. Drawn largely in the writings of the combatants themselves from all sides of the conflict, this book offers an individual account of the great aerial campaigns of WWII. It deals with various aspects of the war.

The year 1935 was one of Germany's crossroads in the pre war period; not only were jobs created but the militarization of the nation was set. 1935 was also the year of the German rearmament program. A new army was born: the Wehrmacht (defence force), which was a replacement of the Reichswehr (1919-1935). The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Germany: the Heer (army), the Luftwaffe (air force), and the Kriegsmarine (navy). Hitler started the expansion of the military and created a new air force (Luftwaffe) which was, of course, against the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations ignored this possible threat from Germany which gave Hitler carte blanche to expand and develop his new army. By creating/expanding the army and the rearmament program, the German economy was booming again. The pride of a nation was restored. By 1939, before the start of WWII, unemployment in Germany was gone. The Wehrmacht fought on all fronts: from Western Europe to Russia and from Scandinavia to North Africa. The Germans dominated upwards of 3,898,000 square kilometers of territory by 1942. It is estimated that between 1935 and 1945 more than 18 million men were part of the Wehrmacht. The Wehrmacht's name alone will resonate in eternity, mostly in a bad way, because of the stigma that the German soldier received after WWII. Lots of crimes had been committed during the war by just a few (Wehrmacht and SS) but it's because of that small percentage of people that had committed these crimes that the Wehrmacht received such a bad name... The only component of the Wehrmacht that was never convicted for war crimes or other brutalities was the Deutsches Afrikakorps under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Even the English POWs testified that they were treated with great respect by their German opponents in Africa. With this book I want to show you the faces, or better said the person behind the uniform. I want to show you that humanity still existed, even in Nazi Germany or in the territories under its control. At last I want to portray the regular German soldier that was not involved in politics but who answered the call to fight for the fatherland. These soldier's stories will reflect the horror of the war, a horror that only the ones can understand that actually have been there. We, the generations after the war can only imagine what happened back in those days. Even when we're reading their stories, how long or short they might be, we'll never fully understand what these veterans have experienced back in those days. The Third Reich destroyed millions of people their hopes and dreams. War is a bad thing and at the end there are no winners. Millions of dead remind us! This document is intended for future generations as a historical reference of members of the Wehrmacht. It is a bundle of stories - not a collage! - of the men that once where part of the Wehrmacht in the period of 1939-1945. It is the voice of the unheard...

Drawing material from the Imperial War Museum's extensive aural archive, Joshua Levine brings together voices from both sides of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain to give us a unique, complete and compelling picture of this turbulent time. We hear from the soldiers, airmen, fire-fighters, air-raid wardens and civilians, people in the air and on the ground, on both sides of the battle, giving us a thrilling account of Britain under siege. With first-hand testimonies from those involved in Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, Black Saturday on 7th September 1940 when the Luftwaffe began the Blitz, to its climax on the 10th May 1941, this is the definitive oral history of a period when Britain came closer to being overwhelmed by the enemy than at any other time in modern history.

DIVDIVFor the first time, four German WWII pilots share their side of the story./divDIV/divDIVFew perspectives epitomize the sheer drama and sacrifice of combat more perfectly than those of the fighter pilots of World War II. As romanticized as any soldier in history, the WWII fighter pilot was viewed as larger than life: a dashing soul waging war amongst the clouds. In the sixty-five-plus years since the Allied victory, stories of these pilots’ heroics have never been in short supply. But what about their adversaries—the highly skilled German aviators who pushed the Allies to the very brink of defeat?/divDIV/divDIVOf all of the Luftwaffe’s fighter aces, the stories of Walter Krupinski, Adolf Galland, Eduard Neumann, and Wolfgang Falck shine particularly bright. In The German Aces Speak, for the first time in any book, these four prominent and influential Luftwaffe fighter pilots reminisce candidly about their service in World War II. Personally interviewed by author and military historian Colin Heaton, they bring the past to life as they tell their stories about the war, their battles, their lives, and, perhaps most importantly, how they felt about serving under the Nazi leadership of Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler. From thrilling air battles to conflicts on the ground with their own commanders, the aces’ memories disclose a side of World War II that has gone largely unseen by the American public: the experience of the German pilot./div/div

This book examines the reality behind the myths of the legendary German fighter aces of World War II. It explains why only a small minority of pilots - those in whom the desire for combat overrode everything - accounted for so large a proportion of the victories. It surveys the skills that a successful fighter pilot must have - a natural aptitude for flying, marksmanship, keen eyesight - and the way in which fighter tactics have developed. The book examines the history of the classic fighter aircraft that were flown, such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke Wulf Fw 190, and examines each type's characteristics, advantages and disadvantages in combat. The accounts of the experiences of fighter pilots are based on archival research, diaries, letters, published and unpublished memoirs and personal interviews with veterans. The pilots included are Werner Molders, Gunther Rall, Adolf Galland, Erich Hartmann and Johannes Steinhoff.

The story of the world’s largest ever invasion through the voices of the men – and women – who witnessed it first-hand.