[Adam]

Welcome to a fellow Aussie.

I would suggest James Corum's The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918-1940 as a necessary. ISBN 0-7006-0836-2

This book is a must for anyone wanting to work with, let alone understand, the Luftwaffe as it provides an understanding of how and why the Luftwaffe developed the way it did and the external influences that helped create what the world saw in 1939 (Udet and the dive-bomber, WW1 experiences, Wever, etc).

As a General overview, try also Cajus Bekker: The Luftwaffe War Diaries, ISBN 0-306-80604-5. If you are after specifics then this is not really the book you're after.


I'm guessing you are not after the more general overviews of the Luftwaffe and want to get stuck into some of the more nitty gritty stuff so Bekker's work won't be much help beyond a vague starting point on whatever you choose to work on. Unfortunately you didn't mention the level of knowledge you have on the Luftwaffe and Second World War which would have been helpful for people to gauge the types of books and research ideas they suggest. I personally am assumming you have an understanding of Luftwaffe structure and the course of the air war in the time frame you mention.

It's hard to say exactly what and where you should go. I found E.R.Hooton's works (Phoenix Triumphant and Eagle in Flames) both useful (dealing with the period 1918-mid 1940 and mid-1940- end fo 1944 respectively [ISBNs: 1-86019-964-X and 1-86019-995-X respectively]).

I think perhaps the best thing to do would be to let us know just what your level of competancy in the field and where you want to go with it before anyone can offer a serious suggestion for you.

All the best

Adam