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

[John Vasco]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

I know the problem and have used something on the lines of, “… but the author has been unable to any German record of a corresponding loss”.

Things have eased somewhat on the issue I mentioned, with the relative part of the Luftflotte 3 KTB becoming available to confirm what we had known, and the additional information in the 'Battle of Britain Combat Archive' series, which shows the combat was exclusively with II./JG 53 Bf 109s.

[Chris Goss]

...and only Hptm Heinz Bretnütz of 6./JG 53 claimed two Hurricanes one immediately after the other in that general location and at the right time during this encounter..........

[John Vasco]

A recent review on Amazon.co.uk.

Dr. Taylor's book is well-written and mostly a good read even if it wanders off into many directions; Poland, Norway, France etc before it comes to the Battle of Britain itself. This could possibly be seen as leading up to actions during the B of B, but have little to do with the real theme of the book. Neither has bomber operations over Germany later in the war. The final chapter 'Conclusions' reads like something one will find in the thesis for a degree at University. Very strange!
However, her quotations from letters, reports etc by wartime German personell are quite interesting. They often reveal that while some perhaps were 'good guys just like the boys in the RAF', others were definitely not. The quotes show the nazi mentality was undeniable in far too many of them, as it was in many German civilians.
Although the blurb focus on Taylor's use of primary sources, she also makes extensive use of secondary sources including books more than 30 years old. Errors from old published works are therefore recycled instead of Taylor 'researching primary sources' as claimed in the blurb. And that's where 'Eagle Days' fails in my opinion - I simply don't trust it, and as a source for future reference it is mostly useless.

[Larry]

Out of interest when was the first use of the Ju 87 Stuka over the UK in WW2. Somewhere I had seen rumours that Stukas attacked HMS Nelson in Scapa Flow, without result in Sptember 1939, as if the Luftwaffe was doing the same thing to our shipping as Bomber Command tried to do on Northern German ports in Sept 1939. Where would these Stukas fly from, for an attack on Orkney?

[John(txic)]

You might be interested in seeing this: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/llm-2025-taylor

Dr Taylor was booked in to give a lunchtime lecture at RAF Cosford earlier this year; however, the event was postponed until 26th August. A few days before an e-mail was received saying that the event was no longer in-person, but a recording could be watched. (FYI haven't seen it yet, btw.)

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Larry

Out of interest when was the first use of the Ju 87 Stuka over the UK in WW2. Somewhere I had seen rumours that Stukas attacked HMS Nelson in Scapa Flow, without result in Sptember 1939, as if the Luftwaffe was doing the same thing to our shipping as Bomber Command tried to do on Northern German ports in Sept 1939. Where would these Stukas fly from, for an attack on Orkney?

A Ju 87 B with a 500 kg bombload had a radius of action of 250 km. Per Google Earth, it's 500 km from Stavanger in Norway to Scapa Flow which is the closest point but the Germans didn't get there until April 1940.

P.S. A Ju 87 R (which I don't think was available until early 1940) had a range of 1180–1320 km with a 500 kg bomb and two droptanks, depending on altitude and engine settings. To get a radius of action, the practice was to divide the max. range by three, so we're talking about 400–440 km., still not enough.

[Larry]

Thanks Nick, I think the reference to Ju 87 was supposed to be Ju88, in particular a four aircraft section from 1/KG30, one of which 'sank' HMS Ark Royal (according to Joseph Goebbels) two years before she was torpedoed in the Med!

I know that Stukas were used to bomb British Convoys in the Channel, circa July 1940, but was their attack on 18th August 1940, the one and only attack by Stukas OVER the UK?

[Chris Goss]

Look up HMS Foylebank Larry as this was I think the first mainland Stuka attack-Portland 4 July 1940. I believe Rs made an appearance first over Norway in April 1940

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Larry

I think the reference to Ju 87 was supposed to be Ju88 … was the attack on 18th August 1940, the one and only attack by Stukas OVER the UK?

That must be it. A Ju 88 A-1 with 1000 kg of bombs had a radius of action of 1,000 km, incidentally.

If you want to follow up on Ju 87 attacks, Andy Saunders wrote a whole book about Stukas in the Battle of Britain.

[John Vasco]

A review of 'Eagle Days' in the September issue of 'Britain at War'. Please do not laugh at some of the comments, as I did as I read through it. My comments in red.

'Taylor provides new sources and analysis. Writing in English about the German side is rare, besides the likes of James Corum and Robert kershaw, there are few tomes. (What? This person, straight off the bat, doesn't have a clue about the number of researchers and writers that have written about the German side!) Taylor has done a fantastic job of exploring the experiences, motivations, and emotions of Luftwaffe personnel during the air campaign against Britain. (I don't believe she interviewed a single German combatant, so that is a load of bollocks). Of particular importance is the Luftwaffe complicity in war crimes. Luftwaffe surgeons asked for and received human test subjects drawn from camp inmates for experimentation. (What this has to do with the Battle of Britain is beyond me, equally so for the content of the book and the comment!)

Reviewed by Toby Clark. Words fail me...