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

[John Vasco]

Book received...
Pages 6-7: '...how did the preceptions of the campaign - and the prospect of an invasion - differ from these oft-forgotten Luftwaffe branches: the air signals units; the anti-aircaft units, the paratroopers that the flying arms left behind collecting dust? Then when flying multiple daily sorties for months on end, what spurred on the Luftwaffe's airmen of all ranks and designations to keep venturing over the 'pirate island': Führer or Fatherland, revenge or desperation? As the final victory over Britain became ever more elusive, how did they view the inconclusive campaign?
For as long as these questions are unanswered, our understanding of how the Battle of Britain unfolded will remain lopsided...'
So there you have it folks. The thoughts/views of personnel in Air signals, anti-aircraft, paratroopers, and all the flying crews. If we don't know what they were thinking, our understanding of how the BoB unfolded remains lopsided! WHAT! What a load of bollocks.

Let's look at page 251: '...Technically, the first significant attack by Jagdbomber (or 'Jabos' in the Battle of Britain had already come as early as 12 August 1940, when fighter-bombers of the test wing Erprobungsgruppe 210 were instructed to take out five Chain Home radar sites along the Kent and Sussex coastlines...' From my extensive research over the decades, it was four (Dunkirk, Pevensey, Rye & Dover), divided up between Gruppenstab, 1. Staffel, 2. Staffel & 3. Staffel.
Page 252: '...Thus, by the commencement of what can be deemed the 'Jaboangriff' from mid-September until late-October 1940...' Once again, WHAT! Erprobungsgruppe 210 were in action from 13 July right through the Battle of Britain. Otto Hintze, Staffelkapitän of 3./Erpr. Gr. 210, recorded 52 missions during the BoB in his Flugbuch prior to being shot down into captivity on 29 October 1940.

I will continue reading with interest.

[FalkeEins]

thanks John, eagerly awaiting your next update from 'acclaimed' author Ms Dr Taylor, if only to avoid shelling out the £20. Yes, she's 'acclaimed' in her publisher's blurb. You have to wonder by whom, other than them...seems to me that they are perhaps deliberately positioning her or 'grooming' her to be a female Beevor or Hastings..I guess that's better though than being a female Christopher Lawrence....oh and can some-one point out to her that Hornchurch is NOT on the south coast next to Folkestone..(see the map)

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by FalkeEins

Yes, she's 'acclaimed' in her publisher's blurb. You have to wonder by whom, other than them

From her website: "In recognition of her PhD research, she was awarded the 2020 Royal Air Force Museum Doctoral Academic Prize in 2021"

[FalkeEins]

.. Okay, so she can write well, has done some reading around the subject, has dug out some obscure sources, knows German, can download a BA file and has no doubt produced a decent and interesting account..

[edwest2]

I would caution about pessimism now that the veterans have passed. There is a thriving American Civil War community of researchers in the United States. New books appear on a regular basis.
New material that is drawn from obscure sources or that includes previously unexamined material among them. Two print magazines are on the stands. I have no interest in this subject, but I point this out to say that
even though this was a much earlier event, research has not waned.

[John Vasco]

Page 7: '...Eighty five years after the Battle of Britain, a comprehensive history on everyday life and death for the entire Luftwaffe during its ten-month Luftschlacht um England is yet to be penned. Thus, Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain rectifies this by providing a typical operational history of the German air force during the iconic campaign, but adopting a holistic approach that encompasses the rank and file of the infamous organisation...'

'a comprehensive history on everyday life and death for the entire Luftwaffe' has not been written, so she has rectified this by writing a comprehensive history on everyday life and death for the entire Luftwaffe! Really? Now that is a BIG claim, that cannot possibly be met.

She's writing 'a typical operational history of the German air force during the iconic campaign.' This, by her own claim, should be comprehensive. We shall see.

More to follow...

[Adriano Baumgartner]

I was refraining myself (with the flaps down and speed brakes ON...really) to not get involved, but I do agree with John Vasco (from which I do have one magnific book)...I really wonder whom (WW2 veterans) this Miss interviewed or which (or how many) Flugbüche or RAF Logbooks did she consulted or cross-checked....to write "a comprehensive history on everyday life and death for the entire Luftwaffe"? Boy, she would NEED all the KTB of the Luftwaffe units and cross check all RAF ORB's + read the War Diaries of the Luftflottes and War Diaries of Luftflotte Commanders, etc.....which I doubt she consulted....Anyway....thanks John for keeping us updated about the text. It was an eye opener...

Humbly yours,

A.

[Chris Goss]

I wrote two books on the Luftwaffe in the BoB using first hand accounts from those involved who I had, like John and others, written to or interviewed in Germany………

[Nick Beale]

I’m not going to judge a book I haven’t yet read, nor would I blame an author for their publisher’s hype, but I have looked through the source notes in a bookshop on two occasions now. She has used a lot of memoirs and secondary source articles about airmen but also letters and diaries from archives in Germany; SRA Reports (recordings of prisoners’ conversations) and other National Archives material; and at least one (that I noticed) Luftflotte 3 file from the Bundesarchiv. Also cited is at least one item from German Docs in Russia and a great many reels from AFHRA. That looks to me like a respectable effort. What she makes of that material is of course the next question.

P.S. If you’re going to make interviewing veterans your entry criterion then Second World War research is over, or very soon will be. Some of us were born soon enough to do that but it’s nobody’s fault if they weren’t.

[FalkeEins]

[quote=Nick Beale;344928]

P.S. If you’re going to make interviewing veterans your entry criterion then Second World War research is over, or very soon will be.[ /QUOTE]

Max Hastings told me a few years ago when I met him that he thought it was. As he put it, '..imagining new revelations and insights from WW II is a disease...' I don't suppose for one minute that Taylor's book will be any different. The publisher's 'hype' is ridiculous.