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Old 12th January 2020, 13:43
rof120 rof120 is offline
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What about Adolf Galland's famous first book (Die Ersten und die Letzten, 1953 / The First and the Last, published 1955 in English). IIRC two chapters are devoted to this operation, which is described in great detail. He gave it this name (the German navy called it "Cerberus" - admiral Ciliax). Galland organised and led the protection of the ships by German day and night fighters. This operation was one of his greatest triumphs, possibly the greatest. He explains on which airfields he transferred his headquarters as the ships moved towards N. France, Belgium, the NL and Germany. The English translation of this book is about 20 % shorter than the German original so choose the German text if possible, or the 1985 French edition "Les premiers et les derniers* (no cuts). In German there are various shortened editions - better use a comprehensive one.

You might add the following books:

- Adolf Galland - General der Jagdflieger - Biographie - von Toliver und Constable - Published 1992 by Herbig in München (Munich).

Many details on "Donnerkeil".

Actually Galland himself corrected many errors in this book, so that he is probably more its author than T and C.

A luxurious (large size, illustrated color dust cover) American edition of the above German book was published 1996 by Schiffer with the title "Fighter General Adolf Galland" if my memory serves me well.

I'm not quite sure but I think Galland was the supreme commander of all German fighter forces deployed for this operation (mainly JG 2 and 26 but others too including night fighters for dawn and dusk). This was not a routine situation (Jafü) but a short, very special one-of-a-kind operation.
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