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Old 2nd September 2009, 23:43
Doug Stankey Doug Stankey is offline
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Re: Luftwaffe reconnaissance over Britain

Recon units is one of those sadly neglected topics. Apart from the Bradley/Ketley/Wadman book and the Nowarra book, there really is no single “go to” reference for Luftwaffe recon. All that remains is scattered over a number of books. I see you have the “Battle of Britain” period books. That’s a good start.

Here’s a few more that might help you out:


[1] Cornwell, Peter D. The Battle of France Then and Now (Old Harrow: After the Battle, 2007). ISBN: 9-781870-067652. [BoF]

[2] Frappé, Jean-Bernard. La Luftwaffe face au débarquement allié (Bayeux: Editions Heimdal , 1999. ISBN: 2-84048-126-X [ Lwdba]

[3] Nielsen, Andreas L. The Collection & Evaluation of Intelligence - USAF Historical Studies No. 171 (Manhattan/KS:MA/AH Publishing, 190? ) ISBN – unknown – Written in 1955.

[4] Shores, Chris. Fledgling Eagles (London: Grub Street, 1991). ISBN: 0-948817-42-9 [F]

[5] Vasco, John; Peter Cornwell Zerstörer The Messerschmitt 110 and its Units in 1940 (Norwich: JAC Publications, 1995). ISBN: 0-9515737-2-1 [Z]


Comments:

[1] the Cornwell book is in a format similar to that of the Blitz books put out by After the Battle and deals with the period September 1939 to late June 1940. It deals with all aspects of the air war in the West and contains the latest and greatest data. This is a book that everyone with an interest in WWII in Europe should have. Its big, beautiful and pacted with information.

[2] This book is entirely in French but it does have a chapter dealing with NAGr. 13 and 4. and 5./123 during the Normandy battles period. There’s about 8 pages of text on these guys. The primary disadvantage of this book (apart from being in French!) is that it is very hard to obtain, and expensive.

[3] This is one of a series of Studies pertaining to the Luftwaffe (and many other topics) . Some years ago, Kansas State University offered printed versions of these (without illustrations) and I was lucky to obtain several. Item [3] has some info about recon ops, most importantly, the secret pre-war recon over France, UK, etc. and that over Russia, pre Barbarossa. In the meantime, these studies are now available for free via the internet at:

http://www.afhra.af.mil/studies/numb...ies151-200.asp

The image quality is bad but readable.

[4] The Shores books are always great and this one covers ops in the West from September 1939 to just before the start of the Battle of Britain. Recommended.

[5] This Vasco book is about Bf 110 ops in 1940 which contain some info on recon over the UK. You might also try some of his Zerstörer books in the Luftwaffe Colours series.

The Bradley/Ketley/Wadman book has some useful general information but it is, unfortunately, riddled with errors so check any info from this source carefully. For all that, it is still the best book on the subject of Luftwaffe recon so far.


I hope that you find the above useful.

DGS
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