Kesselring: The Making of the Luftwaffe

Ref: 4657

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{detailed description}Kesselring — commander, leader, administrator; the only senior German officer to start and finish the Second World War holding a high command appointment. There was scarcely a major campaign in which he was not at some time deeply involved: he flew in the forefront of the battle over Poland, Holland, Britain, Russia and the Western Desert and was shot down five times; as a field commander he defended Tunisia, Italy and, ultimately, Germany.
But it is as much for his role in the formation and development of the Luftwaffe that Kesselring is remembered — his were many of the ideas, plans and insights about the part played by aircraft in the land battle which were central to the careful, systematic reorganization and building up of the German military machine in the 1920's and 30's. This first complete biography presents the complex, fascinating personality of a man whose qualities of utter determination, charm and good humour, harnessed to outstanding training and experience enabled him to cope with both victory and defeat and, finally, when placed on trial for his life, to face his judges with dignity, equanimity and a staunch defence.
Kenneth Macksey, a graduate of the Army Staff College and successful author of many works of military history, here makes use of a wide range of published and unpublished sources, including surviving German records, the reminiscences of colleagues, friends and enemies of Kesselring, the prolific writings of Kesselring himself for the American Historical Division while he was in prison after the Second World War, and the transcript of the military tribunal in Venice where Kesselring was tried as a war criminal. The author has had the full collaboration of Dr. Rainer Kesselring, Kesselring's adopted son, in the writing of this biography.
The jacket illustration, from a 1943 issue of Signal, shows a squadron of Focke-Wulff 190 fighters straight from the factory.
With 10 maps and 23 black and white photographs
{Author / Publisher / Date}by Kenneth Macksey
published by Batsford 1978 1st edn. 262pp illustrated, maps, index, bibliography 17x24
{condition}good, including d/j.
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