Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain

[John Vasco]

edwest2: Excellent post #121. I, too, have no college degree, but in hindsight realise I was fortunate to be trained in the British Government department that I worked in as an 'Internal Investigator' (the Gov Department paid out State benefits, so was open to staff commiting internal fraud). The investigative training went way beyond the training the Police receive, and that helped greatly (I believe) with my research. The Rudyard Kipling short rhyme guided everything we did, and worked equally as well with all of my research:
I KEEP SIX HONEST SERVING MEN
THEY TAUGHT ME ALL I KNEW
THEIR NAMES ARE: WHAT AND WHY AND WHEN
AND HOW AND WHERE AND WHO
The above should be the metric by which all research is founded upon. From my reading over the decades, sadly that has not always been the case.

Adriano: I am not an 'expert'. I am someone who started on a path of trying to find information on a particular topic, and it grew and grew from there. What I did, and eventually achieved, could have been done by anyone else. That's all.

[edwest2]

Thank you John. As a point of interest, when you're done, I'd like to know if you found anything in this book "revelatory."

Best,
Ed

[John Vasco]

Originally Posted by edwest2

Thank you John. As a point of interest, when you're done, I'd like to know if you found anything in this book "revelatory."

Best,
Ed

Will do, Ed. That is exactly what I am looking out for...

[FalkeEins]

Originally Posted by edwest2

Thank you John. As a point of interest, when you're done, I'd like to know if you found anything in this book "revelatory."

Best,
Ed

... or 'ground-breaking' or ( and I like this one) 'unprecedentedly detailed'. Crikey, I can barely even spell it...

..and where is the interest in quoting some anonymous Gefreiter when there are much more 'important' protagonists still untranslated, eg Meimberg, Cescotti etc

[Chris Goss]

On X another well known historian and author has been full of praise for the book. How are both camps for and against diametrically opposite on their views?

[John Vasco]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

On X another well known historian and author has been full of praise for the book. How are both camps for and against diametrically opposite on their views?

Can you mention who that is, Chris?

[edwest2]

Originally Posted by Chris Goss

On X another well known historian and author has been full of praise for the book. How are both camps for and against diametrically opposite on their views?

Chris,

The facts are all that is required. Not opinions. Not posts on X. If this book is badly "off topic" or just plain wrong, that needs to be reported. I suggest quoting some key points in this book and comparing them with the facts that clearly show the author is wrong, and posting that on Amazon.

I think the public deserves no less as well as the historical research community.

Sometimes, it happens that authors develop relationships that cannot see past this. Also, I have seen other examples of books appearing and the author appears unaware of the fact that there is a research community outside of their own circle.

[John Vasco]

Chapter 9 read

Reaching the early part of mid-August. Letter of a junior doctor with KG 2. Uffz. of a Luftwaffe armoured train unit is quoted! Soldier based at Tessenow wrote about a night bombing raid. Quote from Jodl from a report about the landing operation must not fail. Differences of opinion among the top brass of the Third Reich. Poor Luftwaffe intelligence on the RAF. ‘Additional weaknesses within Luftwaffe intelligence included its delayed grasp of British radar’. What delay was this? On the first day against land targets, 12th August, Erprobungsgruppe 210 went after four RDF stations.

Page 151: Kurt Gerhard Raynor voluntarily reported to the training depot in Bitterfeld near Leipzig and applied for the Luftwaffe. What has that got to do with the Battle of Britain? Then, on the back of Werner Mölders flying a Hurricane and Spitfire at Rechlin pre-Battle of Britain, together with references to Galland, she discusses the relative merits of the two fighters from a German point of view.

Quotes Helmut Mahkle, a Ju 87 pilot, on combat on 9th August. Quote from Fink re KG 2 raid of 13th August. More quotes from the Baruther Anzieger. The chapter closes with her commenting that Fink managed to ‘survive the calamitous attack without fighter escort’. Had she referenced my book, ‘Bombsights over England’ re 13th August, she would have found out that Erprobungsgruppe 210 were tasked with attacking Hornchurch together with KG 2 in the early morning. As is well-known, Bf 110 units received the recall order. Hence ZG 26 and the Bf 110s of Erpr. Gr. 210 did not take part in the attack. However, Staffelkapitän Otto Hintze of the Bf 109 E-equipped 3./Erpr. Gr. 210 recorded a mission lasting 1 hour 35 minutes that matched exactly with Fink’s KG 2 attack on Eastchurch, and Sgt Skinner of the intercepting 74 Squadron mentioned that there WAS a Bf 109 escort. May I say that a lack of research of sufficient depth has contributed to a likely error. I do not say here that she SHOULD have read and referenced my book, but I believe it is a major reference work in any detailed and comprehensive study of the Battle.

PS. You won't believe the shit I've just read in a footnote upon starting to read Chapter 10...

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by John Vasco

Chapter 9 read

‘Additional weaknesses within Luftwaffe intelligence included its delayed grasp of British radar’. What delay was this? On the first day against land targets, 12th August, Erprobungsgruppe 210 went after four RDF stations … I do not say here that she SHOULD have read and referenced my book, but I believe it is a major reference work in any detailed and comprehensive study of the Battle.

Amen to that, not to mention that a passage based on the following has been on my website since July 2012:

CX/JQ/220, paragraph 6

On 12/8 source saw a document giving instructions about tactics to be employed on flights to England. The assembling of bomber, fighter and heavy fighter units for attacks should so far as possible not take place over the coast, because the special enemy wireless stations (De Te Apparatus (sic)) will already be in action and reporting the assembly of the units, which gives the enemy fighters an undesirable advantage.

[John Vasco]

Chapter 8 read

Early weeks of July. Much about the German hierarchy and the preparations for a possible invasion of southern England. Hitler's 'appeal to reason'. Bomber Command's continued incursions, and the formation of the German night fighter force (you can read all about that in far greater detail in the book Peter Cornwell and I did in 1995, 'The Messerschmitt 110 and its units in 1940') and an interception on by Streib on 20th July.

Quote from the 'Baruther Anzieger' newspaper of 18th July. Quote from the Swiss 'Zürcher Illustrierte' magazine about 'Threatened England'. A quote from a Gefreiter in Flak Regiment 231...

Details of combat on 24th July, all of which is well-known to those who have read about the Battle.

Beaut of a sentence on page 137: '...Although the Channel Battle is often neglected by historians in favour of studying the Adlerangriff (Eagle Day) which took place from mid-August' [well there's a surprise, she'll enlighten us on her chosen topic!]. If that's what she thinks, she's been reading the wrong books, FFS! Rambles on about the rest of July with no discernable continuity or thread.

Make your own mind up about the above...