I'm re-reading the English translation of
Die Ersten und Die Letzten, (English:
The First and the Last), the autobiography of Adolph Galland, German General of Luftwaffe Fighters for much of WWII. It is both a monograph of his personal experiences and a really good analysis of the reasons why the Luftwaffe eventually failed. He started as a fighter pilot, then became a squadron commander, then a group commander, then general of fighters when Werner Moulder's died. He oversaw the air cover for the breakout of the German battleships from Brest through the Channel to the northern German ports. He tried to coordinate a reasonable defensive strategy for defense of Germany but ran afoul of Hitler who espoused only offensive operations and Goering because he was totally in the thrall of Hitler. In the waning says of the war he was eventually arrested by Goering because he dared demand that the ME-262 jet fighter be used for its designed role, defensive interceptor, and that the drug addicted Goering step down. Instead of being executed he was sent to command a last-chance squadron of ME-262s and a handful of the very best surviving German pilots, all of whom were anti-Nazi, in what was considered a unsurvivable situation fighting against the 8th Air Force bomber and fighter streams in the last days of the war.
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Bob