Leutnant Gerhard Ehlert was one of the few survivors of 2. Nachtaufklärungsstaffel, part of the Luftwaffe's 6th Air Fleet, which operated on Eastern Front during the Second World War. Although he came from a family that spoke out against Hitler and the Nazi regime, he volunteered to join the Luftwaffe. He went on to undertake combat patrols under the most extreme circumstances. Facing hazardous weather conditions – often landing his aircraft 'blind' in heavy fog – and mountainous odds agai...

With the creation of the Franco-Russian Alliance and the failure of the Reinsurance Treaty in the late nineteenth century, Germany needed a strategy for fighting a two-front war. In response, Field Marshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen produced a study that represented the apex of modern military planning. His Memorandum for a War against France, which incorporated a mechanized cavalry as well as new technologies in weaponry, advocated that Germany concentrate its field army to the west and ...