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Description
The story of the Luftwaffe fighter arm's desperate defence of the Third Reich from the growing Allied bomber offensive in World War II.
The Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) was a do or die campaign that saw the very best fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe attempt to defend German skies from increasingly large formations of RAF and USAAF medium and heavy bombers. Flying both piston-engined and, eventually, the first jet-engined fighters to see operational service, the Jagdflieger employed a wide range of weapons and tactics in an effort to blunt the Allied air offensive across Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe.
Defenders of the Reich focusses on the story of the pilot, his aircraft, his weaponry, his draining, dangerous missions and Luftwaffe tactics against the USAAF and the RAF bombers from the summer of 1942 through to VE Day. They fought until they were all but obliterated as USAAF and RAF fighters decimated their ranks in the air and targeted their airfields in devastating strafing attacks.
Leading Luftwaffe historian Robert Forsyth uses German and Allied archival documents coupled with interviews with former Jagdwaffe pilots, to tell the history of this last-ditch aerial campaign from the perspective of the Luftwaffe.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Acknowledgements
Part One Guardians at the Ramparts, August 1942–September 1943
1. A New Enemy
2. Head-On
3. Defence in Depth
4. Savage Summer
Part Two Cornered Wolves,October 1943–February 1944
5. Schweinfurt
6. The Battle to Win the Skies
7. Closer and Closer
8. Know Thy Enemy
9. The Specialists
Part Three Sturm und Drang, February–June 1944
10.Big Week and 'Big B'
11. 'Imminent Danger West'
12. All-out Defence
13. The Cauldron
14. Mass against Mass
Part Four Dark Skies, July 1944–May 1945
15. Retreat and restoration
16. The winter gambles
17. Stormbirds
18. Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
Aftermath and conclusions
Appendices
Index
Product details
| Published | 06 Nov 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 480 |
| ISBN | 9781472862860 |
| Imprint | Osprey Publishing |
| Illustrations | A 16-page black and white plate section. |
| Dimensions | 234 x 153 mm |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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