David Williams wraps up his two-volume history of Luftwaffe nightfighters with this well-done summary of the last two years of the war.

Paradoxically the July 1943 Hamburg firestorm mission wherein the RAF used chaff to blind German radars so traumatized Germany's military leadership that it served as an impetus for the development of new nightfighter tactics and weapons to replace the discredited Himmelbett system. Zahme Sau and Wilde Sau tactics coupled with new radars checkmated the advantage temporarily bestowed on RAF bombers by 'Window.' The battles that followed became a see-saw race as RAF and Luftwaffe engineers and aircrews developed new radars, counter tactics, different weaponry (Schrage Musik) and so on. Though German nightfighters inflicted punishing losses on RAF raiders on many occasions following the Hamburg raid, a number of factors including superior Allied technology and fuel shortages ground down the Nachtjagers.

Williams quite correctly points out that the turning point in this deadly see-saw campaign occurred not over Germany but rather at an English airfield! In July 1944 a disoriented Luftwaffe crew landed at an RAF base, thus presenting the British with a fully operational Ju88G equipped with the three radar systems that had made the nightfighters so deadly.

Given such a wide canvas, Williams does a good job of summarizing those momentous years as well as highlighting well-known nightfighter aces such as Werner Streib, Heinz Schnaufer and Wilhelm Johnen. The comprehensive text includes ten first-person accounts of night kills by German pilots and their RAF victims.

As with Volume One, this book is brimming with photos and artwork - over 190 black & white shots, 11 color pix including one showing a Schrage Musik-equipped Fw 189(!) and 16 color profiles of Me 110, He 219, Ju 88, FW 190, Do 217 and Me 262 night fighters.

All in all, this two-volume set is an well-written, visually appealing introduction to the subject. Luftwaffe fans will definitely want to pick up the set!