Luftwaffe Fighter Aces

by Spick, Mike

• ISBN13: 9781853675607
• ISBN10: 1853675601
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal

Summary

In this exciting book Mike Spick shows how the Luftwaffe's leading fighter pilots were able to outscore their allied counterparts so effectively and completely during WWII. When the records of the Jagdflieger pilots became available after the war, they were initially greeted with incredulity - the highest claim was for 352 kills, and more than 100 pilots had recorded more than 100 victories. However post-war research proved that these claims had in fact been made in good faith and confirmation had only been given after rigorous checking.

Author Biography

Mike Spick has written over 30 books on military aviation

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	7	(2)
Preface	9	(2)
Prologue	11	(17)
The Fighter Ace
The Luftwaffe
Basic Fighter Manoeuvres
The Legion Kondor
1 The Lightning Victories	28	(20)
The Invasion of Poland
The Campaign in the West
Blitzkrieg
Dunkirk
The Experten
2 The Battle of Britain	48	(27)
Fighters of the Battle of Britain Destroyer
Battle Overview
Phase 1: Early July to 10 August
Phase 2: August to 6 September
Phase 3: 7 to 30 September
Phase 4: 1 October to 31 December
The Experten
3 Barbarossa to Zitadelle	75	(14)
First Strike Advance to Moscow
There and Back Again
Fighters of the Early Eastern Front
The Experten
4 Western Front, 1941-43	89	(42)
Focke-Wulf FW 190A
The British Response
The Campaign
The Experten
5 North Africa	131	(11)
Malta Desert Song
'Torch'
The Experten
6 The Night Air War, 1940-42	142	(12)
Intruders
The Defence of the Reich
The Aircraft
The Experten
7 The Yank He Cometh, 1943-45	154	(14)
The Defence of the Reich
Gefechtsverband
The Fighters
The Experten
8 Red Sky at Night	168	(15)
Window on Hamburg
Silk Purses from Sows' Ears
New Threats
Schräge Musik
Nuremberg
The Beginning of the Enal
The Aircraft
The Experten
9 Overlord to Götterdämmerung	183	(12)
The Fighters
The Experten
10 Retreat in the East	195	(12)
The Fighters
Flying the Bf 109G
The Experten
11 The Jet Aces	207	(16)
The Jets and their Opponents
Schwalbe in Action Me 262 in Service
The Experten
Epilogue	217	(6)
Overclaiming
Relative Scores
Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall...
Appendices	223	(22)
1. Luftwaffe Fighter Unit Organisation
2. Day Fighter Experten
3. Night Fighter Experten
4. Strike Rates
Bibliography	245	(2)
Index	247