Luftwaffe in Camera 1942 to 1945

The Luftwaffe in Camera 1942-1945 is the second of two volumes featuring a wide range of fascinating archive photographs of the Luftwaffe taken during the Second World War. It covers the Luftwaffe's final years of war and depicts its aircraft, operations and men in their descent into a final but gallant defeat at the hands of the Allies.
Following the breathtaking run of victories earlier in the war, Germany's armed forces were now struggling to hold on to the territory they had gained, but in a series of bitterly contested battles they were slowly being pushed back to their homeland.
The Luftwaffe played a vigorous role in each of these actions as it unfolded, but as the war moved on it found itself engaged in grim battles of attrition against opposing air forces equipped with superior aircraft in greater numbers, backed by tremendous industrial might. On one front after another the Luftwaffe was overwhelmed until finally, in the spring of 1944, it suffered the ultimate humiliation of losing control of the skies over its homeland.
In trying to overcome these grave problems the German aircraft industry and the Luftwaffe displayed no shortage of ingenuity and courage. To the end the Luftwaffe showed it could still deal out unpleasant surprises, and so long as the war continued it could never be discounted from Allied calculations. At the time of the cease-fire in May 1945 the Luftwaffe possessed some 3,500 combat aircraft, but most of them sat in camouflaged hideouts with empty fuel tanks. The force had fought valiantly against ever lengthening odds and had suffered heavy losses in the process, but when the end came the Luftwaffe was overwhelmed by pressures over which it had little control.
Over several years the author toured Germany to interview Luftwaffe veterans. The majority of photographs that appear in this book come from their personal albums. Together they provide a unique pictorial record of this crucial phase in twentieth-century history.


by Alfred Price 1998 1st edition. 176pp previous owner's stamp otherwise mint, inc. d/j.






Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.

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