[Adriano Baumgartner]

NICK,

I partially agree and disagree with you. Indeed, there is nothing wrong in showing what the WW2 German (or UK, or USA or even Brazilian) newspapers did publish at that time (and I used WW2 newspapers too, on at least one published and two of my current - unpublished - works) about the Luftwaffe campaign against England.

However the context she is adding those newspaper entries is not (in my opinion) related to what she is describing on the tittle of her work: "operational history" (not journalistic reports influenced by Nationalist Propaganda); or "everyday life and death for the ENTIRE Luftwaffe during its ten-months Luftschlacht um England".

Page 7: '...Eighty five years after the Battle of Britain, a comprehensive history on everyday life and death for the entire Luftwaffe during its ten-month Luftschlacht um England is yet to be penned. Thus, Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain rectifies this by providing a typical operational history of the German air force during the iconic campaign, but adopting a holistic approach that encompasses the rank and file of the infamous organisation...'
Chapter 4 read (John Vasco review).
Denmark and Norwegian campaign. For anyone who has read up on this north European campaign, I do not see anything new. The usual quotes from letters of completely unknown people writing home, with no connection to the BoB, and also from the odd aircrew and 'higher-ups'.

Regarding post #107
#107
…high-quality training remained of paramount importance, given that some Luftwaffe airmen had lost their lives by simply NEGLECTING to use their oxygen masks at high altitude.”

What she considers high altitude?

Is there positive evidence that Luftwaffe pilots neglected to use their oxygen masks?

One thing is to have leakages on the masks and your ULTRA on KGr 100 do quote an Oberleutnant (do not remember by heart his name now) asking for old versions of oxygen mask that fitted him or his large nose or face, to be sent directly to Vannes-Meucon, am I wrong?

I have read hundreds of war diaries and WW2 Aviation books...on quite a number of them, there are written (and remembered) cases of oxygen masks leakages and problems with valves....with the inevitable death of airmen both in RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, on American WW2 memories, etc...and there are the cases when the author himself passed through the early simptons of hipoxia, but managed to control the situation and return.

In all published books I have read, never I read about of a Luftwaffe airmen not using his oxygen mask; fully knowing that he is going to fly above 12,000 feet. The only case I remember is that of Erich Sommer, when he talks about his Ju 86 R flights over England, in 1942...on a pressurized machine, on "Luftwaffe Eagle". Of course, below the critical height of circa 12,000 feet; ALL of them (Americans, British, Germans, etc.) could disconnect their oxygen masks without any physical harm, as we all know. Galland himself used to smoke below 12,000 feet without oxygen mask...and if memory does not fail me...Bader too smoked his pipe below that height.

Adriano