Nick,
My late father was a PhD, graduated on the CNRS in France, where we lived 4 years. I know what it takes to obtain that degree, having seen my father passing nights and nights alone digiting his thesis. However, in Brazil, nowadays it involves more politics and “to Butter someone up” (the Mastermind or Professor-Advisor) than personal capacity (I speak for myself and for the experience my wife related me. On my case, the Professor-Advisor wanted me to become her French-Portuguese translator, if I wanted to obtain a chance on the Master Degree; which I kindly declined. My wife took the Master test 2 times, on the last one the Professor-Advisor informed her that for THAT particular year, the candidate was already chosen…before the end of the tests!!…so would she kindly apply next year, so she would have a good chance! The chosen student was already the Professor-Advisor’s “fish”…so no one had a chance…even if you were better Academically qualified, if you spoke more languages or had more published Academic works…the place was already chosen before the test!). I do not know how it works in the UK Academies, nowadays, for instance.
Am sure that, if some of us here on the Forum were given the chance, we would have obtained also our Masters and Doctorate Degrees, am sure. Of course, only this Lady knows what she passed throughout to get her Doctorate in History, and I take my hat for that. By the way, I did not remember that Alfred Price did have a PhD (and I do have some of his works/books on the shelves)…the Dr “tittle” do appear on very few of the cover of his books:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sea..._ac_d_11&sts=t
Your own work on the NSGr.9 (which I do have and read), or Eric Monbeeck’s JG 2 History (or any other of his books), or Jean-Yves Lorant’s JG 300 History, which took 25 years of interviews, personal meetings (like you did with the NSGr.9 veterans), travels, review of Flugbüche and other documents ARE PhD or Post-Doctorates in themselves. So are the books of Dr. Jochem Prien and several other “Historians” and Researchers (French, Russians, Americans, Belgians, etc.). Most of you do not even have a Graduation in History, some are engineers, lawyers, etc….so the tittle here is just a “label”. Some UK authors are former RAF officers, but they do not use the “label” Squadron Leader or Wing Commander, on the tittles of their books or when they do sign their books. I met personally two of them, in 2019; one who saw combat in Iraq…his humility was (and am sure still is) impressive.
The PhD or whatever kind of “label” one may have (Captain, Director, Air-Chief Marshal, Doctor, etc.) is not directly proportional to the work or personality.
What I am meaning is that her PhD tittle did not help her to find the correct number of Bf 110’s damaged or lost in the Battle of Britain, according to one of the type experts and a “Historian” who published several books on the subject (John Vasco). We do not even know from where she took that information of the number of machines. You may be a General (and several UK Generals were sacked off during the war, including the commander of XXX Corps, after D-Day) or an Air Marshal (some were also sacked up from their positions in WW2)…if you do not do your work properly the tittle you do have before your name will not help.
And we, as Human Beings, we all make mistakes from time to time, so no blame on anyone. Recently a Historian published here an ERRATA of one of his works…typo errors, mistakes…anyway, that may happen to each of one here. History is something interesting…an undiscovered document or artifact or grave may appear and change something else that had previously been published (recently the wreckage of Otto Kittel’s machine was found, for instance).
Each author does know what he or she wants to pass to the reader. Of course, there are also the Editors, who rules out or cut something or ask for something else (to change the cover, for instance). So, one thing is to write a book, the other thing is to have it published. Maybe the tittle of her work did not help her, this time….because, if it is related to the Battle of Britain and John Vasco is reporting here that he is in the middle of the book and there is nothing related to the BoB yet…something is wrong there. And the quotation or letters from unknown LW soldiers somewhere on or from Germany…does not seems to be related directly to the Battle of Britain…(did she interviewed him personally? From where she obtained that first-hand information or letter?). Is she just trying to give us a glimpse of how it was on the home front, for a Luftwaffe soldier? I really did not get her point there….
There are good covers which bring us to good books and concise texts inside….
There are poor covers that, nevertheless, take us to nice texts inside (some without hundreds of photos, in some cases!),
And there are huge tittles that bring us nowhere. I do give you the example of Mr. David Baker “The Air War, 1939-1945” which was translated to Portuguese and was the first book I was unable to finish. Poorly translated, seems to have been written with IA, going from one side to another, just scratching the surface of the subjects, etc…a terrible reading experience, on my point of view.
https://www.amazon.com.br/Guerra-193.../dp/6558880555
As customers of WW2 books, we are just discussing here the pros and cons of this particular work of here. I do not know the Lady in question and do not know what she passed through to have this/her book published. Maybe she was more successful on another topic as some pointed out…anyway. A good topic and a good polite discussion.
I do quote Van den Besselaar (1974): “
Historical knowledge is necessarily based on testimonies or documents. "Past de documents, pas d’Histoire".
EDWEST2, I do agree with you. Thanks for your comments.