11–13 August 1940 saw the first large raids on the UK in the Battle of Britain. Adlertag or Eagle Day was to open the great offensive after the warm-up of July. The weather disrupted the complex planning and a fiasco ensued. What characterises the 11–13 August period is the contrast in the strategy and tactics applied by the two main German units, Luftflotte 2 under Field Marshal Kesselring and Luftflotte 3 of Field Marshal Sperrle. Kesselring, with a single exception, used only one of his...

Alarmstart South completes Patrick Eriksson’s Alarmstart trilogy on Second World War German fighter pilots, detailing their experiences in the Mediterranean theatre (1941‒1944), and during the closing stages of the war over Normandy, Norway and Germany (1944‒1945). He utilises extensive personal reminiscences of veterans and original documents, set within a brief factual framework of campaigns, equipment and the progress of the war. Veterans who flew in Me 109, Fw 190 and Me 110/410 aircra...

The tactical abilities of small unit leaders were critical in winning the Battle of Britain and the many innovations and even experiments which they tried out during the active fighting merit examination. The pre-war Fighter Area Attacks ‒ much beloved of the Air Ministry and founded on the notion that incoming German bombers would be unescorted due to the distance from their German home bases ‒ would prove to be almost totally useless. Nobody then thought France would fall, enabling enemy...

For anyone who is interested in the air war 1941-45, the information provided here is of inestimable value. There are no more than a handful of Second World War Luftwaffe members alive today. Patrick Eriksson had the foresight to record these experiences first-hand before it was too late. Some witnesses ended up as senior fighter controllers. The recollections and views of the veterans are put within the context of the German aerial war history. By no means all the witnesses were from the ...

Alarmstart (scramble) charts the experiences of the German fighter pilots in the Second World War, based on extensive recollections of veterans as well as primary documents, diaries and flying log books, with photographs from the veterans themselves, many never previously published. For anyone interested in the air war 1939‒45, the information provided is of inestimable value. There are no more than a handful of WW2 Luftwaffe members alive today. Patrick Eriksson had the foresight to recor...

The story of the air war over Western Europe, told firsthand by the American and German pilots and crew who took part—with never-before-published photos.What was it like to fly through the dense flak over the Ruhr and against the German Experten and to be hit by machine gun and cannon fire from Focke Wulf 190s and Bf 109s? How did so many badly damaged bombers manage to struggle back, against all odds, to their East Anglian bases? In this book, spanning the period ...

One young man's story of combat in the air, constant battles for survival, and the development of radar technology for use against the Luftwaffe.This is the story of how an eighteen-year-old miner shoveling ore from deep in the ground in Utah suddenly found himself, only two years later, 30,000 feet in the air over Nazi Germany, piloting a Flying Fortress in the first wave of America's air counteroffensive in Europe.Like thousands of other young Americans, ...

First published to acclaim in 1985, this book is set to be a timely release, in line with the 70th Anniversary of the outset of the Raids, near approaching in November 2013. Berlin itself was 'the Big City'. It was deep in the heart of Germany and heavily defended with flak and night fighters, not only because it was the administrative capital but also because it was vital for the German war production machine. Heavy losses could be expected on any raid to Berlin. So when the curtain was s...

This, the fourth volume of a five part work that provides a comprehensive insight into all aspects of RAF Bomber Command in World War Two, begins in the spring of 1944 with a completely new insight on the catastrophic raid on Nuremburg on the night of 30/31 March and follows with the disastrous attack on Mailly-le-Camp in May. Gradually, the Allied Bomber Offensive began to bear fruit and in June 1944 the invasion of Normandy took place under an umbrella of almost total Allied air superior...

"Well-written and holds the reader's attention . . . an engaging book and a rare personal view of flying one of the most iconic aircraft of WWII." — FiretrenchAfter recounting his early days as a naval cadet, including a voyage to the Far East aboard the cruiser Köln and as the navigator/observer of the floatplane carried by the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer during the Spanish Civil War, Helmut Mahlke describes his flying training as a Stuka pilot....

"Uses modern methods of operational analysis to determine exactly how the Japanese planned and executed the great raid . . . a worthy, useful analysis" ( Naval History).The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor has been portrayed by historians as a dazzling success. With most American historians concentrating on command errors and the story of participants' experiences, the Japanese attack has never been subjected to a comprehensive critical analysis of t...

The day-to-day insights of a brilliantly daring World War I ace that only ends with his death at the age of 23 . . .James McCudden was an outstanding British fighter ace of World War I, whose daring exploits earned him a tremendous reputation and, ultimately, an untimely end. Here, in this unique and gripping firsthand account, he brings to life some of aviation history's most dramatic episodes in a memoir completed at the age of twenty-three, just days before his tragic death.