Aces of the Reich: The Making of a Luftwaffe Fighter Pilot

Mike Spick advances a rather feeble theory in this incomplete book. He blames the legacy of Manfred von Richtofen for the defeat of the Luftwaffe. Richtofen stated "...when they [fighter pilots] see an opponent they must attack and shoot him down. Anything else is absurd. Nothing else matters to us but the aerial victory." (p. 21). Spick then says because of this legacy "[T]his was to disregard totally the needs of the mission and the overall strategic situation....it was to have unimaginable consequences."Spick reinforces the theory later on page 91 "[A]n unseemly race for the top spot developed, often to the detriment of teamwork and the needs of individual missions." He states on the next page "[M]any Jagwaffe pilots suffered from 'throat-ache'; a condition arising from an unfulfilled ambition that could only be cured by a Ritterkreuz hung around the neck." There he lets his hypothesis hang. He gives NO examples of when one of these many "experten" screwed up a mission chasing after gratuitous kills.Maybe the fact that the Luftwaffe was spread razor thin onto three or even four fronts at a time against vastly numerically superior forces had a little something to do with it too eh?The book then makes no effort to support his 'throat-ache' theory. Instead it sort of corkscrews down into a boring cataloging of when and where various 'experten' achieved their Ritterkreuz (knight's cross), Eichenlaub (oak leaves), Schwerter (swords) and in rare cases Brillante (diamonds). If Luftwaffe pilots were obsessed about achieving the Ritterkreuz, Mr. Spick is VIRTUALLY CONSUMED ABOUT TELLING YOU, THE READER, WHEN THESE AWARDS WERE GIVEN.Here is a prototypical paragraph that demonstrates the content of much of this book:Pilot [put name here] joined the Luftwaffe in [put date here]. He was posted to [put geschwader number here]. He started slowly but soon got the hang of things, achieving his first victory on [put date here]. By [put date here] he had achieved [put number here] victories and was awarded the Ritterkreuz on [put date here]. He was transferred to [put theater here] and had difficulty at first, but his score eventually rose to [put number here]. His Eichenlaub came on [put date here]. He [survived the war OR was killed on such-and-such a date].Sound like interesting reading? It isn't. The names, dates, squadron numbers all begin to melt into a mind numbing blur after about 20 pages of this dry data.This is the sort of information that is more properly and usefully put in a 5 or 6 column table, instead of writing it out longhand filling up a boring book. Column 1 = pilot name, birthdate. Column 2 = Ritterkreuz date, # victories. Column 3 = Eichenlaub date, # victories. Column 4 = Schwerter date, # victories. Column 5 = KIA or survived. Column 6 = extra tidbits.Mr. Spick's selection of experten to expand upon is, by his own admission, arbitrary. He covers the four top scorers (Hartmann, Barkhorn, Rall, and Kittel). But then he jumps all over the place and omits such important experten as Anton Hackl (whom he also snubbed in his earlier book "Luftwaffe Fighter Aces"), Walter Schuck, and "Pips" Priller (who is given a couple sentences only).If you are looking for Luftwaffe fighter tactics, you will also be disappointed. Tactics are only very briefly discussed in the text. Discussion of aerial tactics is largely done in about 11 crudely drawn figures with a brief explanation under the figure. It's all real basic stuff ie. the up-and-under attack, the roller coaster, the break, the sandwich, deflection shooting, etc. But at least you'll know when everybody got their Ritterkreuz!I was hoping to learn which aircraft the various day experten used (or at least predominately used) to gain their reputations. It's not here. I mean there were only two, the Me109 and the FW190. Is that too much to ask? Why Mr. Spick withholds this info puzzles me. Perhaps because he:a) doesn't know himself.b) knows, but wants to keep it a secret.c) knows, but forgot to mention it in EVERY case.d) knows, but doesn't want to waste valuable space when he can tell you when they won the Ritterkreuz.Contrast this with the nightfighter experten where Mr. Spick usually does mention which aircraft they flew. Very puzzling.Discussion specifically of the Me109 is limited to 5 pages, and the FW190 to 3 1/2 pages. These are pretty good (hence the two stars), but far too brief.The index is poor. It consists of names only. No aircraft, tactics, locations, or squadrons are listed.

This is a tremendous book for the Jagdwaffe fans! It is choked with details about the aces, their training, the fighters they flew and how they performed compared to those of the RAF, Red Air Force and USAAF, many diagrams and statistics and much much more! It probably demands from the reader to have a good background on World War II and Luftwaffe and it will seem somehow heavy in numbers and details to the casual readers, but it is an absolutely marvellous source for the dedicated students of aerial warfare who would like to compare calibers of weapons on fighters, the velocities and weights of various ammunition used (the 30 mm ammo of Me 262's Mk 108 was a class in itself!), the turn and climbing rates of Spitfires and Bf 109s, the command changes in the Jagdwaffe, and the fascinating stories of hundreds of its best pilots. I also appreciated that Mr Spick didn't hesitate to correct mistakes that he made in his earlier books, like the information that Herbert Rollwage was not Luftwaffe's top scorer against four-engined bombers with 44 victories but he amassed only 14. A highly recommended book!

A very interesting summary of Luftwaffe fighter operations in WW2. Lots of detail about individual aces and paints a gripping picture of the gradual decline.

Apparently an OCR scan that wasn't checked (Hitler repeatedly shows up as Hider, Tips' Priller instead of 'Pips', etc). If you can get by those annoyances, you'll find a great review of the Jagdwaffe.

All of Mr. Spick's books are wonderful. I have enjoyed some of them several times. This work adds color and depth to the histories of the Luftwaffe that he has already written. For the serious student of the Luftwaffe, Mr. Spick is "the man". If he writes it - I buy it.

Superb book on German Luftwaffe Aces and their making!

Great book! Thank you!

GOOD BOOK