The Rise and Fall of The Luftwaffe: The Life of Erhard Milch

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{detailed description}Hitler numbered Göring's deputy, Field Marshal Erhard Milch, State Secretary for Air in the Third Reich, among the men for whom the word 'impossible' did not exist. And Milch once said of the Führer : `Even if he commanded me to walk across the waves to him, I would unhesitatingly obey.'
Milch was ambitious, aggressive and dangerously nationalistic, but amid a barren personal life his loyalties were intense and unshakeable. Although Hitler's admiration soured and Milch was disgraced, the field marshal's devotion remained until his death in 1972.
In this book David Irving traces Milch's career as an airman, airline tycoon, the Luftwaffe's senior field marshal after Göring, and finally prisoner of war. Irving describes Milch's brilliance in the heady days of the rising fascist administration and his decline from power in the crumbling Reich. In the chaos the Reich was riddled with intrigues, jealousies, and the smell of imminent disaster.
Milch's uneasy relationships with Albert Speer, Hermann Goring and Hitler himself are explored and give a fascinating insight into the Third Reich.
Milch was architect of Lufthansa, Germany's international airline, and creator and builder of the Luftwaffe. His ultimate importance was as the power and brain behind Germany's air force in the last war.
The young Milch commanded a fighter squadron during the First World War. After the armistice he entered civil aviation, eventually becoming chief executive of Lufthansa, rescuing it from ruin. In 1933 he became Goring's State Secretary for Air and, as Lufthansa flourished, Mulch engineered the secret growth of the Luftwaffe and the training of bomber crews, thus violating the Treaty of Versailles.
After the war Milch was tried by the Americans at Nuremberg and sentenced to life imprisonment. Released after ten years, he lived anonymously with a niece in Düsseldorf, working for a foreign aviation company, until his recent death.
David Irving met the elderly Erhard Milch five years ago. This book is the result of their conversations. Milch also surrendered his diaries, notebooks and papers to the author who spent four years researching the book, being the first historian to make use of the extensive Milch Documents collection until recently held in British custody.
{Author / Publisher / Date}by David Irving
Published by Weidenfield and Nicholson 1973 1st edition. 451pp illustrated with 16pp plates, index, bibliography. 86pp of notes and sources 16x24
{condition}very good, in edge-worn and price clipped d/j.
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