By E R Hooton - Eagle In Flames the Fall of the Luftwaff (New Edition) (2000-01-16) [Hardcover]

by E.R. Hooton

Excellent Book

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

E.R. (Ted) Hooton is a retired defence journalist who worked for Moench and Jane’s before establishing his own successful newsletter. A member of the Royal United Services Institute and the British Commission for Military History since retirement he has focused upon military history.

Reviews

[Michael Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written in 1997 by the well regarded E.R. Hooton. Hooton has previously published “Phoenix Triumphant; The Rise, and Rise of the Luftwaffe” covering 1918 to 1940. This book, “Eagle in Flames,” covers 1940 to the end of the war. 1945 was quite thin, however it also contains a fine summary of the Luftwaffe’s problems throughout the war.

The book has only eight chapters. The major chapters contain material gathered by front and time period. For example: Battle of Britain, Atlantic 1940-1944, Mediterranean and East 1940 to early 1942, etc. A significant aspect of the discussions concerns the quality and performance of numerous senior officers, organizations and roles, and the impact of political intervention. This requires frequent naming of military branches, names, ranks, functions and units. These titles and names are all in German of course. For a non-German speaker like me, this slowed the read as I frequently had to refer to the lists and abbreviations in order to understand the implications of the material. I am not sure if there is a solution to this other than for me to spend the time to learn the material in the German.

There is a lot of detailed information distributed throughout this book. The same issues arise over and over again as the war progresses. In my opinion there is no single, or chapter summary of technical, tactical, strategic, or organizational challenges. However, the book ends with this very high level summary: “The German General Staff lost the Great War because they sought to chain twentieth century technology to nineteenth century philosophy and their misuse of air power through the failure to concentrate forces, the inability to persevere with worthwhile strategies, and persistent interference with industrial organization. This was repeated by the Nazis with even more devastating results.” One should remember that Germany ended the war using jet fighters and bombers, and a range of missiles, and rockets. This use of technology was much greater than the allies who made limited use jet fighters and rockets.

This book will help people interested in detailed practices taken by the Luftwaffe. It would also interest people who want the detailed background to better understand Hooton’s comments or analyze high level decisions for themselves. As Hooton goes through this material it is also interesting to see him identify errors or opportunities taken by the Allies as well. This book had a lot of interesting material, however personally I found it too difficult to retain the German functions, units and branches. Three Stars.

[Russ Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

the sequel to Phoenix Triumphant, which charts the rise of German military air power between 1918 & 1940, this takes the reader from the heights of triumph in 1940 to the brink of disaster in 1944, charting all the mistakes made in between, as well as recounting the mistakes never rectified in the earlier years, the biggest mistake being the misuse of air power, "like children playing marbles with diamonds". Well worth a read if you've ever wondered exactly why you need checks & balances on power, & why the "effete & weak" democracies triumphed over a seemingly invincible German war machine.