This book will recount the actions and personalities of the Luftwaffe fighter force who excelled in this tough and grim form of aerial warfare. Planned as six chapters, in Chapter 1 the author will describe the initial onslaught of the USAAF air offensive and the German response in 1942 and 1943 during which time tactics of defence were developed and refined, from close-range, head-on attacks against massed formations of B-17s to attacks from the rear. Chapter 2 will detail the continuing air campaign, including the bitter battles of Schweinfurt and Berlin with biographies of many of the...

When the revolutionary Messerschmitt Me 262 jet first appeared as a bomber in the skies over north-west Europe in late 1944, it represented both a new dawn in aeronautical development and a great shock to the Allied air forces and armies. The Me 262's path to deployment as a bomber aircraft was tortuous and is surrounded in controversy. In mid-1944, Adolf Hitler, having seen the impressive and formidable performance of Me 262 prototypes, stated his firm desire to see the aircraft enter service, not as an interceptor, but as a bomber. In this aircraft he believed he had the weapon which would...

Le Me 262 et le P-51 representent un sommet en termes de design, de performance et de capacite au combat en raison de leur puissance de vol respectives. Avec ses debuts operationnels a l'ete 1944 et propulse par le moteur Jumo 004, le ME 262 depassait tout ce que les Allies possedaient en puissance de feu et en vitesse. Cependant la disponibilite des deux machines ainsi que celle de pilotes entraines devenait un probleme insurmontable pour la Luftwaffe. Pendant ce temps, le P-51, avec son moteur Rolls-Royce (Packard) Merlin et ses reservoirs largables permet a la USAAF d'avoir un avion de...