Last Days of the Luftwaffe - comments

[edwest]

I'm glad you found my comments useful. The publisher is Frontline Books, London, which is an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd. I do not see any reference to a German language edition.

The author mentions where he obtained his information and acknowledges the help of well known experts in the research community. There are no footnotes or appendices with references to specific documents, but I believe that space, and therefore, expense, was the primary reason.

Finally, aside from some references to late war operations and some mention of unit consolidations, the rest of the book is about what was planned and this, generally, did not take place.

After the 10 July assassination attempt on Hitler, he understandably put more and more of his trust into the SS. The mention of Dr. Ing. SS General Hans Kammler, for me, was an important acknowledgement of a figure who would receive Plenopotentiary powers from Hitler on 27 March 1945, and be given all power to call on any branch of the military and the Party to assist him in advanced weapons development.

I can recommend this book to those who wish to fill in some gaps regarding special missions and a few interesting late-war events, such as Me-262s of the Hogeback battle unit assisting in putting down the Czech insurgency in Prague. Since I do not own a large specialized library, I am unaware of how much of this information may have been covered elsewhere, both in books and magazine articles. And for those interested in the plans that were in place and projected to the end of 1945, then this book goes a long way in answering those questions.

For me, I wanted to know about those last days and those last missions as part of completing a picture of late war air operations and in the hope of answering some questions for my own research regarding Luftwaffe and non-Luftwaffe activity during this time period.



Regards,
Ed