[La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Scheduled for 31 January.

https://www.avions-bateaux.com/produ...RE+UNITES/5675

Volume One - available now

https://www.avions-bateaux.com/produ...RE+UNITES/5643

Usual disclaimer,
Ed

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Published this week.
A small presentation here

https://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2025/...-by-peter.html

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Hi Neil,

Thanks very much for that "small" presentation -- excellent stuff!!

Compliments on your fine interview with Peter Taghon. You asked good questions, and Peter's thoughtful responses made for very interesting reading. I also appreciated the translated Steinbock extract while I await the arrival of my two KG 54 volumes.

Together with the new Steinbock book by Chris Goss, we'll now have a much clearer understanding of the failure of those operations.

Regards,
Leon Venter

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

My book is a 30,000-word Osprey special but I have been asked to expand this in the future.


Neil: One thing, your Blog about Bellstedt was condensed from Avions (which I have not yet seen)? BTW Leslie Howard was not American but British!

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Chris, no, I haven't seen the latest issue yet either, although I did catch the short pdf extract on the Lela Presse website. As surprised as you! And thanks for pointing out that Howard was British - I was sure I meant 'Hollywood' ....

thanks too Leon. I stumbled across the photos of Hellwig in Peter's book - another surprise. I regularly walk the dog around Hawkinge cemetery (past Hellwig's grave) but have never been curious about him....

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

At this point I feel obliged to plug my own work about the 14/15 May 1944 raid on Bristol which completely failed to find the city: http://www.ghostbombers.com/kf4/West/bristol1.html

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

I realize that my "much clearer understanding" remark inadvertently dissed the authors of all the existing works on Operation Steinbock, including:

• Nick Beale on his "Ghost Bombers" site
• Ron MacKay "The Last Blitz"
• After the Battle "The Blitz Then and Now, Vol. 3"
• Ken Wakefield "Pfadfinder"
• Edmund Blandford "Target England"
• Alfred Price "Blitz on Britain"

amongst others. My apologies to all concerned! :o

Here's hoping Chris Goss will be able to put out that expanded version of his Osprey title at some point in the near future. It's likely to be the definitive account.

Leon Venter

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

.. there are indeed a number of good books on Steinbock. A personal favourite is Jean-Louis Roba's title for Lela Presse in the BA series. As this is the KG 54 book thread I should perhaps point out that M. Roba plays a key role here as M. Taghon does not write his books in French AFAIK and definitely not in English (AFAIK)

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

I got "The Last Blitz" when it came out and there was a lot in there but in reading it I remember feeling a bit dissatisfied overall, that there was more to explore. Personally, I'd like to find more about German efforts to jam British radar but one National Archives file is 'unavailable (fragile or in need of repair) … requires treatment for mould' and while I found the interim report on the Kettenhund jammer I've never found the final one.

Another dimension that I've happened on more recently is the high-level discussion in the Luftwaffe (memos in various Bundesarchiv files) about how much of a future the bomber arm still had in 1944 given the supply of replacement crews and the lack of new aircraft types coming through — and that's before the fuel started to run out.

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

I'd have thought 'Steinbock' virtually finished it off. And ops over Normandy applied the 'coup de grâce' - KG 54 lost around 50 Ju 88s during this period (often with crews) with a similar number of Ju 88s damaged. There's an interesting account from a TG 1 pilot in Peter's book - from finishing his instrument training on Ju 52s he was posted to KG 40 where he didn't fly as the Geschwader was then being disbanded before arriving at I./ KG(J) 54 and going straight onto the 262.

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

No argument about that, it's just that in the High Commnads eyes its days as a viable force appear to have been numbered even before Steinbock proved so costly.

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Holy moly, I was remiss in not mentioning that one!

Yes, Batailles Aeriennes #83 is an outstanding resource on Steinbock. It contains:

• a detailed, raid-by-raid chronology
• a complete Luftwaffe loss list for the campaign
• the best pictorial coverage available.

The French put out some excellent magazines, especially Aero Journal, Batailles Aeriennes, and Avions. I buy the ones with interesting Luftwaffe content, but then I often forget to consult them, as in this case... :red:

Thanks for the reminder.

Regards,
Leon Venter

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Have just received my copy and wow! This is a mighty and very weighty publication indeed - nearly 400 pages, hundreds of photos, Flugbuch/wehrpass scans and various annexes. I can’t really do it justice here but this is an absolutely incredible unit history and without a doubt the final word on KG54. It’s a shame it’s in French but google translate works well and very grateful that Mr Taghon and Lela Presse have published it in any language! Congrats :)

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

Lucky you, I’ve (pre)-ordered vol I september last year, the book appeared in october, in november I sent an e-mail because still no book on my doorstep, filed a contact page on the Lela website in January, no answer yet…So I Am a bit reluctant to order Vol.II. Oh I miss Christian book Verlag…

Dirk

Re: [La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II] Nouveau La Kampfgeschwader 54. L'escadre à la tête de mort - Tome II
 

650 according to the publisher. Cover photo shows "B3+AP" flown by Staffelführer of 6./KG 54 Oblt. Karl-Egon Hellwig. Hellwig and his crew were shot down over Kent on the evening of 21 January 1944, crashing at Sellindge (between Ashford and Folkestone). Hellwig was killed and his grave is in Hawkinge cemetery..

https://blogger.googleusercontent.co...-h640/KG54.jpg