This is original source material provided by German military officers and sensitively edited into book form. It provides a fascinating insight into the German views of naval aviation and the war at sea – Most Highly Recommended.
NAME: The Luftwaffe and the War At Sea, 1939-1945, As Seen By Officers Of The Kreigsmarine And the Luftwaffe. FILE: R2676 AUTHOR: edited by David Isby PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword, Greenhill Books BINDING: soft back PAGES: 288 PRICE: £16.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWII, World War Two, Second World War, World War 2, Eastern Front, Leningrad, Red Army, sniper, sniper craft, rifle, German Army, war of snipers, NKVD, Smersh, counter intelligence ISBN: 987-1-78438-244-5 IMAGE: B2676.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/ycfwtvyv LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This is original source material provided by German military officers and sensitively edited into book form. It provides a fascinating insight into the German views of naval aviation and the war at sea – Most Highly Recommended. One caution with primary source books is often that they are designed primarily for historians and super-enthusiasts where the style can be somewhat hostile to others who are simply interested in the subject. In this book, the editing has been sensitive, resulting in a very readable book that has lost nothing in terms of detailed observation by those who were there. The text is capably supported by a fine selection of images embedded in the body of the book, many of these being rare images. Germany, like many other countries, suffered from the battle between army, navy and air force. Better integration and co-operation between Kondor long-range reconnaissance and attack aircraft with U-Boats and German surface warships would have achieved devastating effect against Britain early in the war. By the time that communication and operation had been significantly improved, it faced an enemy who had moved even quicker and come to dominate the seas to the extent that submersible torpedo boats were forced to operate underwater for very much longer, using snorkel breathing systems and suffering the poor underwater performance of submarines that had advanced little since their introduction in WWI. The Royal Navy realized very early on that they had been betrayed by their politicians who had refused to return all naval aviation to the RN in 1938. By continuing to maintain RAF control of maritime patrol and attack aircraft, the politicians had introduced the need for inter-service co-operation at a time when the RAF had been more interested in maintaining its empire than actually providing an adequate service in those areas that were considered peripheral to their main role. That meant that first priority went to Fighter Command and Bomber Command. Coastal Command was the poor relation, receiving obsolete machines considered no longer suitable for first line operation by the other two Commands. So the RN started out having to accept inferior maritime aircraft operated in their support by the RAF. To that was added the further major problem that the senior RAF officers were ill-disposed to RN needs in conducting the war at sea. As a result, the RN employed innovative ideas of which one superb example was the 'jeep' or 'escort' carrier. These were ships that were either conversions of merchant vessels, or based on merchant hulls and equipment. They included covered hanger space and carried monoplane fighters and torpedo bombers. To augment this provision, and fill gaps quickly, the RN also employed MAC ships which were merchant vessels that continued to carry cargo but had a full flight deck and reduced superstructure to allow the space to carry, launch, and recover fighters and torpedo bombers at sea, although without weather resistant hanger space. This brilliant approach enabled 'fleet' carriers to be reserved for their intended task force role and used 'escort' carriers to escort the convoys and to attack submarines and Luftwaffe patrol aircraft. This very quickly provided an effective counter that blocked the potential danger of Luftwaffe maritime aircraft. It also forced the U-Boats underwater where they were less able to stalk and destroy convoys. As resources caught up with demand, the RN and the USN were able to set up free roaming hunter-killer groups, based on escort carriers and anti-submarine corvettes, to hunt down U-Boats without having also to escort slow moving convoys. The German officers recollections reflect this battle which they were soon losing. This book provides a comprehensive overview from the German perspective, challenging some of the myths that have become established the text, while and first rate supporting images also provide a view of the diverse aircraft types employed by the Germans in the naval aviation role.