With Christmas Eve and Day upon us, Schiffer Publishing (who else?) offers numerous WWIIclassic enemy aviation books as perfect gifts, especially for the libraries of the aviation-enthusiasts. For fast orders and overnight mailings, visit the web sites of America’s five bestmilitary publishers: Schiffer Publishing, www.schifferbooks.com; Casemate Publishers,www.casematepublishers.com; United States Naval Institute, www.usni.org; Osprey Publishing,www.ospreypublishing.com; McFarland & Company, Inc.; www.mcfarlandpub.com; and, as faras university presses are concerned, Texas A & M University Press, www.tamupress.com.Reviewed and highly recommended by Don DeNevi“THE DAY FIGHTERS – – German Fighters in World War II – A Photographic History of the
German Tagjager, 1934 – 1945”, by Werner Held. Schiffer MILITARY Publishing: first published,
1991, 7 ¾”x 10 ½”, 500+ photographs, 224 pages, hardcover; $29.95. See,www.schifferbooks.com.“THE NIGHT FIGHTERS – – – German Fighters in World War II – A Photographic History of theGerman Nachtjaget, 1940-1945”, by Werner Held and Holger Nauroth. Schiffer MILITARYPublishing: first published in 1991, 7 ¾”x 10 ½”, 500+ photographs, 232 pages, hardcover;$29.95. See, www.schifferbooks.com.“The Luftwaffe – Air Organizations of the Third Reich”, by Roger James Bender. SchifferMILITARY Publishing Ltd.: first published in 1993, 6 ¾” x 9 ½”, 125 photographs, 321 pages,hardcover; $39.95. See, www.schifferbooks.com.“My tactic,” explained Luftwaffe night fighter pilot, Erich Hartman, “was to let the otherplane feel the full effect of my guns. If you wait until the plane fills the whole window of thecockpit, you’re sure not to miss a shot.” And, Hartman rarely missed. By war’s end, the coolGerman major had destroyed 352 Allied and Soviet planes, the undisputed world record.“The Day Fighters”, as “The Night Fighters”, is a photographic documentation of a specialkind. Author Werner Held uses rare photographs to illustrate the development of the Germanday fighter arm and its operations during WWII. In short, the photos, carefully selected andcaptioned, reflect candidly the face of Hitler’s War as it really was. If the Luftwaffe uniformswere on our boys photographed at some random air base, a reader see the camaraderie amongthem and believe, without noticing the German uniforms, they were of American men at anyone of our countless military bases. At work, horse playing, in the cockpit about to take off orland, they smile, they giggle, they laugh, just as our boys did awaiting orders in the Pacific,England, and Europe before flying off to kill, or returning from killing. Candidly photographed,they reveal that not all German servicemen were in the Nazi Party, SS, Gestapo, state police, oramong guards in the death camps assisting or watching systematic mass murders. The photoscertainly don’t glorify the war. For the most part, the photos taken by fellow Germanservicemen, mechanics, groundkeepers, etc., (who else would be allowed on the bases?), theyphotoed pride and gallantry, productive accomplishments and technical advancement,willingness to ask for risk and sacrifice, abhorring death by burning flesh and other forms ofcruel, suffering dying. Just as our boys. Not a speck of difference, other than most of themidolized their Fuhrer, at least when conquering victories were in abundance.In the end, May, 1945, the waste of it all, military and civilian lives (60 million, more or less?),the wealth of whole nations, the uselessness of the survivors, and doom was felt as much bythe victors as the vanquished. Armed only with a simple magnifying glass, author Werner Heldpainstakingly went through photo after photo in masses and masses of piled negatives andselected 500+ unknown photos taken by unknown photographers to form, in essence, Volume1 entitled “Day Fighters”. Three specialists in pilot histories, dates, and aircraft identificationsassisted the author in the identification of details, all in preparation for the publication of his
authentic work.
“The Night Fighters”, a ditto of the above, of course, can be considered Volume Two since asnight follows day, it focuses upon those fearless volunteer pilots whose duty was to defendagainst the black of night. Co-authors Werner Held and Holger Nauroth write in theirIntroduction, “It would not be entirely accurate to describe the night fighters as lone hunters,because many hundreds of men worked in the command posts and at the airfields, their onlypurpose to bring the individual night fighter into a position from which it would successfullyengage the enemy. This was an understanding which did not always succeed. Often the nightfighter pilot had to depend on himself and his cabin crew. During the final stages of aninterception of a Spitfire, for example, success depended solely on him alone”.Although the hunters increasingly became the hunted as the war progressed, the successesof the night fighters grew steadily as did their casualties, their often agonizing efforts portrayedhere for the first time. In short, in exceedingly rare photographs the story of the German nightfighters is presented, from his birth as a pilot destined to battle in the black, to his final landingin defeat, that is, if he were able to land all by himself and walk away from his tired aircraft.With so much background material presented, it seems unlikely this phase of WWII will ever betold again.“The Luftwaffe” must be included among the twins. It is an out-of-print book that buffs andscholars will relish together. In 320 pages, author Roger Bender reveals rank insignias, uniforms,headgear, cuff titles, armbands, special uniforms, Fallschirmjager equipment, accessoriesspecialty badges, clasps, decorations standards, flags, pennants, aircraft markings, etc. Collects
and historians will urgently want this classic added to their library shelves.
