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Old 5th February 2018, 10:59
Lennart Andersson Lennart Andersson is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
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Lennart Andersson
Re: Phoenix - a complete history of the luftwaffe 1918-1945. Volume 1

First, the book. It depends on what you are after. If you need a summary of what has been written before it might be worth the money. The publisher has done a good job with layout, paper quality is good, etc. I found that it has a lot of information about personalities that was useful to me. However, my main interest is aircraft, how many were built, which versions existed, construction numbers, registration numbers, etc, and if you are looking for such information, see my review above. In addition one is left with the impression that this book was compiled a number of years ago, because newer and better German books and articles have not been used.

“The vast majority of early Luftwaffe documentation is lost”. I do not agree. Of course a lot was destroyed at the end of the war, but lots of material still exist, primarily at the Militärarchiv at Freiburg and at the Bundesarchiv in Berlin, but there are several other archives where relevant material can be found as well. It is in fact possible to piece together a fairly accurate history of German military aviation during the fascinating and often neglected 1919-1935 period, but that takes years of research. How do I know this? From personal experience.
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