Adler Gegen England (Eagle over England) - book by AirFile

[bootneck]

Adler Gegen England (Eagle against England)

The Luftwaffe's Air Campaign against the British Isles 1941-1945

Book by AirFile

Adler Gegen England (Eagles against England) is the story of the Luftwaffe's attempts to subdue England; following their unsuccessful attempts to control the skies by destroying the RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. The story highlights how the Luftwaffe changed their tactics; to a concerted effort to bomb the industries, import and distribution networks, including the domestic infrastructure of Britain.

Considered to be a major factor in the failure of this strategy was the choice of twin-engine tactical bombers for the Luftwaffe's sorties; as opposed to the allied forces heavy four-engine strategic bombing campaign. The strategy was further exacerbated by the constant changing of target types without following through on any advantages gained before the switches.

The Book

This book is laid out in AirFile's typical standard of soft cover A4 portrait style. Contained with the 72 pages is a compendium of historical text which is nicely interspersed with full colour profile and plan drawings of Luftwaffe aircraft camouflage and markings, plus the occasional archive photograph from the war period.

The sequencing of the German air force's strategic air plans are broken down into chronological chapters within the book and cover the major phases over the Luftwaffe's four year bombing campaign as follows:
The Blitz - September 1940 to December 1941
The Baedeker Blitz - 23 April to 3 May and 31 May to 6 June 1942
High and Low Raiders - Ju86 high flyers and Fw190 "tip and run" raiders 1942-1943
Intruders and night fighters - 1941 to 1944
The air attacks in 1943 and 1944 - including "Unternehmen Steinbock"
Anti-shipping and maritime operations - 1941-1944
Air-launched V1 missiles, jet bombers over the UK and the Nachtjagd's last fling 1944-1945

The book starts with a comprehensive narrative about how Germany planned to take the offensive to Britain; how medium bombers were favoured over heavy bombers and how it was proposed that the Luftwaffe should support Germany's U-boat offensive.

The section on the Blitz, probably the most well known period of Germany's strategic forays, covers the period up to December 1941 and within this section are colour profile drawings of Dornier Do.172 and Do.217's, Heinkel He.111 medium bombers.

There are over ninety-five full colour drawings in single side-profile colour arrangement throughout the book. Each drawing depicts a specific aircraft as it was on a certain date/period.some have the aircraft's nose art drawn alongside in greater relief which is a real boon for the modelling enthusiast.

Another eleven pages have 4-view profile and plan colour images, each depicting a single aircraft and includes a full narrative of historical relevance.

In addition there are thirty eight black and white archive images which provide photographic evidence of the types of aircraft deployed and their markings.

Also described is Germany's anti shipping and maritime operations and depicts such aircraft as the Arado and He.115 floatplanes, Fw200 Condors; including their operations with guided bombs/missiles against allied shipping.

Conclusion

This is another nicely compiled book by Neil Robinson and the illustrations from Peter Scott's library really do enhance the narrative with beautifully visualised images of the aircraft concerned throughout Germany's attempts to subdue Britain into defeat and surrender.

Some of the enclosed photographs had not been seen by me before and I found them extremely interesting; it just goes to show what can be achieved through in-depth researching of a subject. For me, this was a pleasure to read as I had not seen so much about Germany's strategic air campaign detailed so well in one, easy to read, book before.
I would happily recommend this book to anyone planning to make models of German bombers; or anyone wanting to see what types of aircraft were used and their markings.

Review sample courtesy of

Kindly mention Britmodeller.com to the supplier when making enquiries or orders

[Antoine]

Thanks Mike,

Really usefull review to me, as I was just putting it in and out of the basket on a webseller's page, while asking myself what to expect, no latter than yesterday!

[bootneck]

Hi Antoine,

Thanks for your kind comments; hopefully it helped you with your final decision.

cheers

Mike