Military and aviation history enthusiasts have always been interested in the fighter pilots of Hitler's Luftwaffe. Some of their stories are extraordinary. Fighting from the Arctic Circle to the North African deserts, from the Caucasus in the East to Normandy in the West, the German fighter pilot flew and fought until he was shot down, "flown out," wounded or killed in action. A handful survived from "first to last." This first volume of Day Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe traces the story of the Luftwaffe's day fighter arm (der Tagjagd) from its inception to 1942. Organized campaign by campaign, this chronological account interweaves brief biographical details, newly translated personal accounts and key moments in the careers of a host of notable and lesser known Luftwaffe aces. Around 500 Luftwaffe fighter pilots were awarded the Knight's Cross, accumulating huge numbers of missions flown. A similar number achieved more than 40 victories - more than the two leading USAF and RAF fighter pilots.

Around 500 Luftwaffe fighter pilots were awarded the Knight's Cross, accumulating huge numbers of missions flown. A similar number achieved more than 40 victories—more than the two leading USAF and RAF fighter pilots. This volume of Day Fighter Aces of the Luftwaffe traces the story of the Luftwaffe's day fighter arm from 1942 through to the end of the war in Europe, covering missions over Russia in 1943, over the West and the Reich, the Eastern Front and the Mediterranean. Organized campaign by campaign, this chronological account interweaves brief biographical details, newly translated personal accounts and key moments in the careers of a host of notable and lesser known Luftwaffe aces. Fully illustrated with 200 contemporary photographs, maps and profiles of the aircraft flown by these aces, this is a visual delight for anyone with an interest in the day fighter aces of the Luftwaffe.

Herbert Martin Massey was by any measure, a remarkable man. He was wounded three times in three separate conflicts, the first of which, in the First World War, almost killed him. Brought down in flames by one of Germany’s great aces, Werner Voss, he somehow recovered from his horrific, life-threatening injuries to continue his flying career in the Royal Air Force, only to be nearly killed once more in the Palestine Emergency of 1936, when his life was saved by the thin metal of his cigarette case. Then, at the age of 44 and having risen through the ranks to Group Captain, he was shot down over Holland on the second of the Thousand Bomber Raids in June 1942.Massey was taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to Stalag Luft III at Sagan. Here, he was to excel as the Senior British Officer, vigorously defending the rights of his fellow prisoners of war, the men now under his command. Respected and admired by his comrades and captors alike, fate handed to him the decision to authorise the Great Escape, the famous breakout from Sagan in March 1944.Too badly wounded to join the escape himself, Martin Massey was the man to whom the Germans first broke the news of the execution of fifty of those who had been recaptured. Repatriated to Britain because of his wounds shortly afterwards, it was Massey who brought home the details of the murders which began the process of bringing the perpetrators to justice post-war. Decorated for his gallantry and leadership six times, men like Martin Massey come along only rarely. This book, using previously unseen documents and photographs, tells his story.

Comprehensive technical details of the Macchi, C.205 Veltro.Production and service photos, a wide range of color profiles, and rare color photographs from W. W.II.Detailed photographs featuring modern highly accurate restorations, inside and out, and including under rebuild and servicing details.Profusely illustrated with photos, including a comprehensive walk-around section showing all aspects of the airframe, and diagrams from official manuals.This book provides all the core technical details of the Macchi, C.205 Veltro in one compact, economical volume.Essential reading for aviation enthusiasts & scale aeromodelers.Scale plans of all versions with color profiles.

Black Tulip is the dramatic story of history's top fighter ace, Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann. It's also the story of how his service under Hitler was simplified and elevated to Western mythology during the Cold War. Over 1,404 wartime missions, Hartmann claimed a staggering 352 airborne kills, and his career contains all the dramas you would expect. There were the frostbitten fighter sweeps over the Eastern Front, drunken forays to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, a decade of imprisonment in the wretched Soviet POW camps, and further military service during the Cold War that ended with conflict and angst. Just when Hartmann’s second career was faltering, he was adopted by a network of writers and commentators personally invested in his welfare and reputation. These men, mostly Americans, published elaborate, celebratory stories about Hartmann and his elite fraternity of Luftwaffe pilots. With each dogfight tale put into print, Hartmann’s legacy became loftier and more secure, and his complicated service in support of Nazism faded away. A simplified, one-dimensional account of his life - devoid of the harder questions about allegiance and service under Hitler - has gone unchallenged for almost a generation. Black Tulip locates the ambiguous truth about Hartmann and so much of the German Wehrmacht in general: that many of these men were neither full-blown Nazis nor impeccable knights. They were complex, contradictory, and elusive. This book portrays a complex human rather than the heroic caricature we’re used to, and it argues that the tidy, polished hero stories we’ve inherited about men like Hartmann say as much about those who've crafted them as they do about the heroes themselves.

William Gregory, "Greg," to all, was born into a sharecropper's life in the hills of northcentral Tennessee. From the back of a mule-drawn plow, Greg learned the value of resilience and the importance of living a determined life. Refusing to accept a life of continued poverty, Gregy sought and found a way out - a work-study college program that made it possible to leave farming behind him forever. While at college, Greg completed the Civilian Pilot Training Program and was subsequently accepted into the Army's pilot training program. Earning his wings in 1942, Greg became a P-38 combat pilot and served in North Africa during the summer of 1943 - a critical time when the Luftwaffe was still a potent threat, and America had begun the march northward from the Mediterranean into Europe proper. Following the war, Greg served with a B-29 unit, then transitioned to the new, red-hot B-47 strategic bomber. In his frequent deployments, he was always assigned the same target in the Soviet Union - Tblisi, Stalin's home town. While a B-47 pilot, Greg was selected to join America's first high-altitude program - the Black Knights. Flying RB-57D aircraft, Greg and his team flew peripheral "ferret" missions around the Soviet Union and its satellites, collecting critical order-of-battle data so desperately needed by the Air Force at that time. When that program neared its design end, and following the Gary Powers shoot-down over the Soviet Union, Greg was assigned to command of the CIA's U-2 unit at Edwards AFB. It was during that five-year command that Greg and his team provided critical overflight intelligence, including during the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam build-up. He found time to also become one of the first to fly U-2s off aircraft carriers in a demonstration project. Following his U-2 command, Greg attended the National War College, was assigned to the reconnaissance office at the Pentagon, and then was named Vice-Commandant of the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). Greg retired from the Air Force in 1972.

This book is compilations of the 4-view color profile, scale plans and photo details of the single variant of the Lockheed P-38L-5-LO Lightning. Scale plans in 1/72 and 1/48 scales plus drawings from wartime technical manuals. Also photos of the details in B&W and color.

This book is compilations of the 4-view color profile, scale plans and photo details of the single variant of the Messerschmitt Me 163 B-1 Komet. Scale plans in 1/72 and 1/48 scales plus drawings from wartime technical manuals. Also photos of the details in B&W and color.

This book is compilations of the 4-view color profile, scale plans and photo details of the single variant of the NAA P-51D-5-NA Mustang. Scale plans in 1/72 and 1/48 scales plus drawings from wartime technical manuals. Also photos of the details in B&W and color.

This book is compilations of the 4-view color profile, scale plans and photo details of the single variant of the PLZ P11.a. Scale plans in 1/72 and 1/48 scales plus drawings from wartime technical manuals. Also photos of the details in B&W and color.

Scale plans in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 of the P-51B/C & F-6C Mustang.

The next book in the popular Polish Wings series is on the famous Russian WW2 bombers in Polish Air Forces. Covers duty of these aircraft during WW2 and postwar period. More than 120 photos, mostly unpublished, and many color profiles.

40 color profiles of the famous Henschel Hs 129, a German WW2 ground-attack aircraft. German and foreign users’ camouflages are shown.

This book examines the genesis of the AT-9 design, its competitors and, eventually, comrades-in-arms, with whom AT-9s were always literally the best and the brightest, and looks at the fielding of the aircraft to the 24 initial stations as well as an astonishing number of unusual and special assignments – including assignment to line, tactical units.After producing 791 aircraft between September 1941 and January 31, 1943, and assigning every single one of them, and having served actively and continuously through to VJ-Day, exactly one complete AT-9 survives, and this solitary example is actually a composite of several aircraft.

This book describes famous Bf 109 G variants with DB 605 A engine. Technical aspects of all variants. Books describes all variants differences in detail. A detailed technical description is attached. All variants are lavishly illustrated by pictures including strip down and walk around pictures of the fighter and its systems. 1/72 scale plans of all versions.Colour profiles.

In the early stages of World War Two, the Italian Forces in Abyssinia, East Africa, consisting of 200,000 troops and nearly 400 aircraft constituted a grave threat to Kenya and the Sudan. To meet this threat three South African Air Force (SAAF) fighter squadrons were deployed to East Africa to counter the attacking Italian Air Force. The three squadrons operated mostly old and antiquated bi-planes in the form of Hawker Furies, Gloster Gauntlets and Gloster Gladiators. Between then they did also operate a number of Hawker Hurricane Mk. Is, of which some still had fabric wing surfaces and two-bladed wooden propellers. These aircraft were also passed along between the various units, depending on the area that had the highest requirement. Among the three squadrons, 1 Squadron primarily used Gloster Gladiators, while 2 Squadron used Furies and Gladiators, with 3 Squadron being the primary users of the Hurricanes. These units were joined by 4 Squadron, training on Furies and Curtiss Mohawks, before moving to Egypt for operations in the Desert. 3 Squadron later converted to these Curtiss Mohawks, and eventually ended up with a mix of Mohawks, again supplemented by Gladiators. 41 Squadron, an Army-Cooperation unit, also converted to a fighter squadron after the major campaign was completed and served as a holding unit in East Africa, flying Hawker Hurricane Mk. IIs. One Detached Flight, operating Mohawks during the final part of the campaign, was renumbered as B-Flight of 3 Squadron and joined the primary unit for the last major operations in East Africa. The squadrons operated on all fronts in Somaliland and Abyssinia, and made a considerable contribution towards the victory that was achieved in that campaign. Commenting on the part, that the SAAF Fighter Squadrons played in the campaign, Sir Archibald Sinclair said: "When the Italian come to draw up a list of the factors that caused them to lose the East African Empire, they will place the South African Air Force somewhere near the top of the list”. This volume covers the combat history of these fighter squadrons during the campaign, as well as the colors and markings of their aircraft. Primary sources, such as Squadron war Diaries and Pilot Logbooks. were used in the preparation of the text contained herein. This volume contains 23 full-color plates and 112 b&wphotos, indicating the people and aircraft operated by these squadrons. This volume will be followed by two further volumes, tracing the onwards history of these squadrons as well as additional SAAF Fighter Squadrons during the campaign in North Africa and Malta, and the campaign in Sicily, Italy and the Balkans. The authors have already written eight books covering the colors and markings of the SAAF and SA Army equipment in a series of booklets entitled South African Colours and Markings, numbers 1 to 8.