The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe Blitz: Rare photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War)
Philip Kaplan
Language: English
Pages: 144
ISBN: B00ONZQ6M4
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This new collection of archive imagery from Philip Kaplan offers a gripping, graphic view of the routine repeated each day and night, from the summer of 1940 through to the following spring, by the German bomber crews bringing their deadly cargoes to Britain. Through mainly German archival photos, it profiles airmen on their French bases and in the skies over England; the aircraft they flew, fought and sometimes died in; their leaders; their targets and results; the R.A.F pilots and aircraft that stood in opposition to the German forces, and the losses experienced on both sides. The images, from the Bundesarchiv and other German and British photographic sources, vividly convey a real sense of events as they played out, as do the compelling first-hand accounts from a host of participants on both sides, eyewitnesses to one of the most brutal sustained bombardments of the Second World War.
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their island nation, to link coastal radar stations by telephone and radio / telephone to their defending fighter aircraft. Their long-range radar, while less sophisticated than German radar, was effectively integrated into a sound, practical air defence system. Freya, the German long-range radar, was capable of detecting hostile aircraft to a range of seventy-five miles and through a 360 degree circle, though it could not detect altitude. And, unlike the British radar which incorporated gigantic
maintaining the morale and spirit of the aircrews. In one such example, a Junkers Ju 52 transport plane was pressed into service making frequent flights over to the Channel island of Guernsey, which had been occupied by the Germans. There it was loaded with fresh fruit and vegetables, whiskey and cigarettes to be distributed on one of the French air bases in a welcome break from the canned food to which the fliers were accustomed. Ample diversion too was provided by the uniformed German
Fighter Command. But when Hitler turned his air force on London and the other big cities of Britain, doing so gave Fighter Command the breathing space it desperately needed then to regroup, rebuild and reinforce its ranks. Thereafter the pilots and crews of Fighter Command were able to operate largely with impunity in the air and on the ground. As if further proof were needed that German air superiority over Britain, much less air supremacy was as far from achievement as ever, the chaotic,
thankful to say, British killed, wounded, prisoners and missing, including civilians, do not exceed 92,000, and of these a large proportion are alive as prisoners of war. Looking more widely around, one may say that throughout all Europe for one man killed or wounded in the first year perhaps five were killed or wounded in 1914-15. “The slaughter is but a fraction, but the consquences to the belligerents have been even more deadly. We have seen great countries with powerful armies dashed out of
Merlin first powered a German aircraft acquired from Heinkel, the Heinkel He 70 Blitz. Thus it was that the German plane maker unintentionally aided Rolls-Royce in the development of the engine that would ultimately power the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster Mosquito, Mustang, and other aircraft that would play a major part in Germany’s defeat in the Second World War. In Britain, meanwhile, technical development in the Royal Air Force had, since 1930, been in the capable hands of Air Vice Marshal
