The authors have done an excellent job on this overview of the aerial defense of the Reich during daylight. The night defense is touched on as it impacts the daylight defense, but the focus is the daylight defense. In addition to the air combat reports of aviators, which you can also find in other books, this book has the big picture of the overall strategy and organization and the overall military outlook and how they worked together with the technology to drive tactics as the war progressed. I've read a lot of other books on this area and still learned a lot from this book. Good selection of photos too. Highly recommended!

An exceptionally well written book that reads very easily even while taking on what can often be a very dry subject... organization. In that role the book fills in many gaps that have been missing in previous works. If you're looking for a re-hash of which was better the mustang or the focke-wulf, or which side over-claimed victories more, this isn't it. It deals purely with the air defense of the Reich and is a marvelous telling of what decisions (and who made them) resulted in the German's loss of air superiority over their own country and the struggle by the men in the cockpits to prevail even after the outcome was unavoidable. Highly recommended!

This book fills a gap in the usual study of the history of World War II. We have had many books about the part played by the RAF and the USAAC, but what was happening on the other side? This helps fill in the gaps in the total picture.

The product of a 10 year-collaborative effort by noted Luftwaffe authors Donald Caldwell and Richard Muller, LUFTWAFFE OVER GERMANY is a well-researched, well-written, fast-paced account of Luftwaffe air defense operations. Equal parts critical analysis and popular history, the book is must reading for air war enthusiasts.

Caldwell, who wrote the marvelous JG 26 trilogy, and Muller pack a great deal of information in the book's 290-odd pages of text. (If anything, the subject cries out for more pages). After tracing the development of German air defense from 1914 to 1939 in their first chapter, the authors discuss the initial air assaults by RAF units from 1939 to 1941, America's 1942 entry into the European air war, the American build-up from January-June 1943, the air defense's great victories in the last six months of 1943, the turning of the tide in January-April 1944, the oil campaign that lasted from May to August 1944, Adolf Galland's attempts to rebuild the fighter force (September-December 1944) and the final desperate struggles in 1945.

Throughout the book Caldwell and Muller do a first-rate job of weaving together myriad combat reports, technical reports, meeting minutes and other materials into a cogent and fascinating narrative. Their discussion, analysis and conclusions regarding the German - and Allied - developments in the air war make for fascinating reading. Among the most startling - to me- was their assertion that the Germans lost the air war in l943, long before they suffered crippling losses, by not diverting sufficient aircraft to air defense operations. A number of commanders on both sides likewise come in for well-deserved criticism.

The text is illustrated with over 190 photographs of commanders, aircrew, aircraft and combat scenes. Had space allowed, the book would have benefitted from the inclusion of diagrams of Luftwaffe and USAAF combat formations and attack tactics.

Make no mistake about it: Caldwell and Muller's book is a major addition to the literature on Luftwaffe air operations. It may, in fact, be THE definitive book on the subject. Highly recommended.

Don Caldwell is well known for his excellent JG 26 unit history and if you enjoyed that I should think this would be an automatic purchase...
However an overview of the air battles that raged over Germany during the strategic bombing offensive in only 320 pages was always going to be a hard task- as it is this book only covers the day battles - no mention at all of the RAF's campaign. The book is relatively large format and the narrative scope is wide. The main events are related chronologically but while the material is nonetheless well organised the book reads a little breathlessly at times. It is not a scholarly work - nor is it an Osprey. Chapters 1 & 2 cover the period 1914-1941, while other chapters deal with the 'Oil campaign', 'The big 'blow' that never fell' and 'The final desperate expedients'. The text is detailed, very readable and well written, with most 'big' dates (7 July 44, 27 Sept, 2 November, 14 January 45, 24 March 45) given reasonable treatment within the space allowed - however the style of treatment probably makes it a little difficult to pick out certain themes that might be of interest, eg the bomber destroyer activities of the Bf 110G-2 and Me 410 ZG Gruppen, or the Sturmgruppen. That said there is an index..

Photographic content is OK, but you wouldn't buy this for the pictures.. There are of course a number of portraits of JG 26 personalities (perhaps too many portraits, but I guess they were easier to lay out) .. Otherwise the text has a good number of pilot accounts - although some of these are severely curtailed no doubt for reasons of space, eg Ernst Schroeder's long account from 17 December 1944, which in the JG 300 history published by Eagle Editions runs to over five pages of text... Elsewhere Caldwell's map and diagrams are good as is the lengthy discussion of fighter command and control techniques and organisation, fighter doctrine, morale and motivation and the summing up. A little irritatingly perhaps the authors use their own term 'RLV' throughout - standing for Reichsluftverteidigung or Reichs Air Defence - but I've never seen that abbreviation in any German language text...but probably a useful shorthand I guess..

One criticism; when dealing with my favorite unit JG 300 - leading Reich's Defence Geschwader - the authors have used some old and unreliable sources such as Jung, Hennig & Bethke & Dahl. ..While III./JG 300 had specifically been charged with the defence of Berlin there is no sense here of JG 300 as the leading German air defence unit of 1944/45. Bretschneider downed by flak on 24 December 44 ? .. from Hennig & Bethke's fanciful account ..the Kommandeur of the 'newly-formed' IV./JG 300 lost on 17 December..? ...Maj. Heino Offterdinger survived the war - pictures of his 'Green 45' taken in March 1945 feature in the JG 300 book. Elsewhere the account of Walfeld's (II./JG 300) ramming on 11 September 44 is taken from Walther Dahl's largely discredited memoir - unfortunately Wahlfeld (spelling) was a Sturmstaffel pilot and this incident occured in January 1944 and featured on the cover of an edition of the Berlin Illustrierte Zeitung. Similarly the G-6 photo taken from Jung on P234 is not 'Yellow 2' in the fall of 1944 but 'Red 12' in the summer of 43 at Hangelar.. and so on...
That said these are nit picks and this is probably the best we could have hoped for between one set of covers...so recommended without hesitation...

Don Caldwell is well known for his excellent JG 26 unit history and if you enjoyed that I should think this would be an automatic purchase...
However an overview of the air battles that raged over Germany during the strategic bombing offensive in only 320 pages was always going to be a hard task- as it is this book only covers the day battles - no mention at all of the RAF's campaign. The book is relatively large format, 320 pages, and the narrative scope attempts to cover a wide range of themes while relating the main events chronologically. The material is well organised with any number of different themes cropping up throughout. Chapters 1 & 2 cover the period 1914-1941, while other chapters deal with the 'Oil campaign', 'The big 'blow' that never fell' and 'The final desperate expedients'. The text is detailed, very readable and well written, with most 'big' dates (7 July 44, 27 Sept, 2 November, 14 January 45, 24 March 45) given reasonable treatment within the space allowed - however the style of treatment probably makes it a little difficult to pick out certain themes that might be of interest, eg the bomber destroyer activities of the Bf 110G-2 and Me 410 ZG Gruppen, or the Sturmgruppen. That said there is an index..

Photographic content is OK, but you wouldn't buy this for the pictures.. There are of course a number of portraits of JG 26 personalities (perhaps too many portraits, but I guess they were easier to lay out) .. Otherwise the text has a good number of pilot accounts - although some of these are severely curtailed no doubt for reasons of space, eg Ernst Schroeder's long account from 17 December 1944, which in the JG 300 history published by Eagle Editions runs to over five pages of text and is much more thrilling than the truncated version presented here... Elsewhere Caldwell's map and diagrams are good as is the lengthy discussion of fighter command and control techniques and organisation, fighter doctrine, morale and motivation and the summing up. A little irritatingly perhaps the authors use their own term 'RLV' throughout - standing for Reichsluftverteidigung or Reichs Air Defence - but I've never seen that abbreviation in any German language text...but probably a useful shorthand I guess..

One criticism - the authors have used some old and unreliable sources such as Jung, Hennig & Bethke & Dahl when dealing with JG 300 the leading Reich's Defence Geschwader..In fact there is no sense of JG 300 as the leading German air defence unit of 1944/45 - III./JG 300 had specifically been charged with the defence of Berlin - possibly because the authors have done little original research on the subject. Bretschneider downed by flak on 24 December 44 ? .. from Hennig & Bethke's fanciful account ..the Kommandeur of the 'newly-formed' IV./JG 300 lost on 17 December..? ...Maj. Heino Offterdinger survived the war - pictures of his 'Green 45' taken in March 1945 feature in the JG 300 book. Elsewhere the account of Walfeld's II./JG 300 ramming on 11 September is taken from Walther Dahl's largely discredited memoirs - unfortunately Wahlfeld (spelling) was a Sturmstaffel pilot and this incident occured in January 1944 and featured on the cover of an edition of the Berlin Illustrierte Zeitung. Similarly the G-6 photo taken from Jung on P234 is not 'Yellow 2' in the fall of 1944 but 'Red 12' in the summer of 43 at Hangelar.. in the author's defence it has to be said that he has minimised coverage of JG 300 so that it is only a small part of the work ..
That said, this is probably the best we could have hoped for between one set of covers...so recommended without hesitation...

Don Caldwell is well known for his excellent JG 26 unit history and if you enjoyed that I should think this would be an automatic purchase... The book is relatively large format, 320 pages, and the narrative scope is a lot wider than I imagined it might be - there's a lot of reading here and the material is superbly organised with any number of different themes cropping up throughout. Chapters 1 & 2 cover the period 1914-1941, while other chapters deal with the 'Oil campaign', 'The big 'blow' that never fell' and 'The final desperate expedients'. The text is detailed, very readable and well written, with most 'big' dates (7 July 44, 27 Sept, 2 November, 14 January 45, 24 March 45) given reasonable treatment within the space allowed - however the chronological treatment probably makes it a little difficult to pick out certain themes that might be of interest, eg the bomber destroyer activities of the Bf 110G-2 and Me 410 ZG Gruppen. That said there is an index..

Photographic content is OK, but you wouldn't buy this for the pictures.. There are of course a number of portraits of JG 26 personalities (perhaps too many portraits, but I guess they were easier to lay out) .. Otherwise the text has a good number of pilot accounts - although some of these are curtailed no doubt for reasons of space, eg Ernst Schroeder's long account from 17 December 1944, or II./JG 300 Guenter Kuring's description of his ramming of a B-17 on 14 January 45. The maps and diagrams are good as is the lengthy discussion of fighter command and control techniques and organisation, fighter doctrine, morale and motivation (a little familiar that passage) and the summing up. A little irritatingly perhaps the authors use their own term 'RLV' throughout - standing for Reichsluftverteidigung or Reichs Air Defence - but I've never seen that abbreviation in any German language text...but probably a useful shorthand I guess..

nit-picking - the authors have used some old and unreliable sources such as Jung, Hennig & Bethke & Dahl when dealing with JG 300...Bretschneider downed by flak on 24 December 44 ? .. from Hennig & Bethke's fanciful account ..the Kommandeur of the 'newly-formed' IV./JG 300 lost on 17 December..? ...Maj. Heino Offterdinger survived the war - pictures of his 'Green 45' taken in March 1945 feature in the JG 300 book. Elsewhere the account of Walfeld's II./JG 300 ramming on 11 September is taken from Dahl's memoirs - unfortunately Wahlfeld (spelling) was a Sturmstaffel pilot and this incident occured in January 1944 and featured on the cover of an edition of the Berlin Illustrierte Zeitung. Similarly the G-6 photo taken from Jung on P234 is not 'Yellow 2' in the fall of 1944 but 'Red 12' in the summer of 43 at Hangelar.. coverage of JG 300 is only a small part of the work though..
while an overview of the air battles over Germany in only 320 pages was always going to be a hard task, this is probably the best we could have hoped for between one set of covers...so recommended without hesitation...