Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe in World War 2 Hardcover – Illustrated, June 10, 2007

Great book, give a real look at these pilots

Philip Kaplan is chiefly known for several coffee-table books on various subjects - Battle of Britain, 8th Air Force, Tanks - that often combined quotes from vets with evocative photographs. In this 2007 volume from England's Pen & Sword Books he examines the careers of six Luftwaffe experten - Adolf Galland, Werner Moelders, Gunther Rall, Erich Hartmann, Johannes Steinhoff and Hans-Joachim Marseille. In the words of Queen Victoria: "We are not amused."To be blunt, FIGHTER ACES OF THE LUFTWAFFE IN WORLD WAR II is one of the poorest written books I've come across in a while. 'Written' may not be the right term, 'assembled' may be more apt. The book simply doesn't flow well.One of my main beefs is that Kaplan interjects quotes and excerpts from other books in his narrative but often in a clumsy fashion. The Steinhoff chapter is the worst example of this. He starts off describing Steinhoff's horrendous Me-262 crash, switches to his early life then gives over 13 pages to Steinhoff-penned accounts of various wartime events that are all over the board chronologically before resuming his narrative with the Me-262 crash again. It makes for very disjointed, frustrating reading.Likewise Kaplan also inserts lengthy sections on topics not specifically related to the pilot in question which basically derail the narrative on that pilot. For example, in the Gunther Rall chapter he tacks on a 15-page history of the Bf 109, seven pages of which cover a pilot's report on flying the '109 by warbird pilot Mark Hanna. Why that information needed to run in that chapter is unknown since every pilot covered in the book flew 109s! Or when discussing Erich Hartmann's postwar GAF career, Kaplan spends six pages describing the F-104 including several GAF pilot flight reports. That much material not only isn't needed, it shifts the focus completely away from telling the Hartmann story.The final straw for me also happened to be the final chapter of the book, entitled 'Other Luftwaffe Fighter Pilots.' It covers two(!) pilots, one of which - Wolfgang Falck, who pioneered Luftwaffe night fighter ops, certainly deserves recognition. The other is Horst Petzschler. With so many deserving experten - Mayer, Philipp, Graf, Lang, Trautloft, Streib, Priller, von Maltzhahn, etc. - why was Petzschler, a 26-kill ace, chosen? Perhaps he was included simply because he was still alive at that late date.Reading this book sometimes made me question the depth of Kaplan's knowledge of Luftwaffe matters. For example, he labels JG 300 a squadron. Wrong; it was a fighter wing as in Squadron/Group/Wing. Then too, 'Wilde Sau' operations did not involve "a small number of Bf-109Gs." Rather the initial concept also involved FW 190s and worked so well that three wings(!) - JG 300, 301 and 302 - were formed, operating '109s and '190s. JG 11's Bf 109s were, in fact, assigned to draw off 8th AF escort fighters but they did that to give FW 190 sturmgruppen - not Bf 110s - a shot at USAAF bombers. Other slips: the 'Junkers Ju-88s' in photo 10 are Dorniers; photo 22 depicts Milch not Kesselring; the 'Ju-87' cockpit in photo 30 is actually that of a Me-110 and so on.Much of the information in Kaplan's book can be found in the Toliver/Constable 1968 HORRIDO book, which I'd recommend over Kaplan's book. HORRIDO covers dozens more Luftwaffe aces and has a lot of good information. However it takes a very uncritical, downright fawning view of its subject matter so beware! Mike Spick's ACES OF THE REICH covers some of the same ground as Kapan and is worth a look as are John Weal's Bf 109 Aces books for Osprey. Though it doesn't concentrate on aces as does Kaplan, Donald Caldwell's recent, wonderfully researched LUFTWAFFE OVER GERMANY masterpiece has more accurate descriptions of Luftwaffe personalities and events and is a must-buy for all Luftwaffe enthusiasts.So, for a number of reasons, I don't recommend FIGHTER ACES OF THE LUFTWAFFE IN WORLD WAR II. Bottom line: interesting subject but uneven research and poor presentation.

I have not red the book. There is only one thing that I noticed on the book's cover. There are two fighter planes on the cover. The plain closest to the reader is the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which is apparently shooting down the enemy's plane in front of it. So far so good. Things change when one starts paying attention to the first plane - the enemy one.First, it resembles very much the Messerschmitt Bf 109 model itself. It is not either Spitfire, Hurricane, Lavochkin or Airacobra. That is clear.Second, and this is the most important feature in my view, if the reader carefully looks at the white lines that outlines the shape of the cross of the "true Messerschmitt Bf 109's" right wing and traces the same white lines across the air onto the presumed enemy plane's right wing, one can see that the same white lines are on the "enemy aircraft's" right wing. I was able to notice this resemblance on the computer's screen and I believe that whoever has this book in his/her hands will surely notice the same thing in real time.Third, I am saying that this is a very poorly made "photo-montage" to show a "genuine Messerschmitt Bf 109" in action actually shooting down the friendly aircraft.

Poorly written and very disjointed. It was like pulling teeth to finish. It is overpriced and arrived damaged which did not help matters. Considering some of the great books out on the subject, I would really recommend not wasting your time or your money on this one.

This was well-written and interesting but I found the format a bit odd in that it seemed to have more than one subject area in some of the chapters without any clear link between what was being written about. This might be down to the fact that I read it on Kindle. I think it would have flowed better as a physical book. All the same, I would recommend it to anyone interested in these remarkable men who achieved feats that will never be equalled.

Excellent book!

Good book