The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe: The Life of Field Marshall Erhard Milch

by David Irving

No damage to book or DJ, Book of the Month Club book, Erhard Milch, airman, airline tycoon, senior field marshal after Goring and finally prisoner of war. Little Brown Publisher 1973, 5 3/4 By 8 1/2"

Genres: History, World War II, Biography, Aviation, Germany, Nonfiction, Military Fiction

443 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

David John Cawdell Irving is an English author who has written on the military and political history of World War II, especially Nazi Germany. He was found to be a Holocaust denier in a UK court in 2000 as a result of a failed libel case.

Irving's works include The Destruction of Dresden (1963), Hitler's War (1977), Churchill's War (1987) and Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich (1996). In his works, he argued that Adolf Hitler did not know of the extermination of Jews, or, if he did, he opposed it. Though Irving's negationist claims and views of German war crimes in World War II (and Hitler's responsibility for them) were never taken seriously by mainstream historians, he was once recognised for his knowledge of Nazi Germany and his ability to unearth new historical documents, which he held closely but stated were fully supportive of his conclusions. His 1964 book The Mare's Nest about Germany's V-weapons campaign of 1944-45 was praised for its deep research but criticised for minimising Nazi slave labour programmes.

By the late 1980s, Irving had placed himself outside the mainstream of the study of history, and had begun to turn from "'soft-core' to 'hard-core' Holocaust denial", possibly influenced by the 1988 trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zündel. That trial, and his reading of the pseudoscientific Leuchter report, led him to openly espouse Holocaust denial, specifically denying that Jews were murdered by gassing at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Irving's reputation as a historian was further discredited in 2000, when, in the course of an unsuccessful libel case he filed against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books, High Court Judge Charles Gray determined in his ruling that Irving willfully misrepresented historical evidence to promote Holocaust denial and whitewash the Nazis, a view shared by many prominent historians. The English court found that Irving was an active Holocaust denier, antisemite and racist, who "for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence". In addition, the court found that Irving's books had distorted the history of Hitler's role in the Holocaust to depict Hitler in a favourable light.

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANOTHER awesome read. An incredible man Field Marshal Milch! The obstacles he had to over come, the back stabbing, the jealousy, the vanity of engineers. Someone who doesn’t know a lot about WW2 & the 3rd Reich would probably think that all ppl in that gov. got along, but they didn’t! There were a lot of senior officials throwing people under the bus with jealousy. An incredible book. I’m going to read it again after I read “The Trail of the Fox” again.

[Paai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't care what they say about David Irving, but this is an excellent book, well written and thoroughly researched.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written account of Milch's work in the Luftwaffe. When it is related how the French confiscated his planes and destroyed his work prior to the rise of Hitler when Germany simply wanted to recover from the first world war, it was impossible not to feel a sense of satisfaction at what would soon become of France when the other shoe dropped. Milch accomplished most of the work while Goering received the publicity.

[Mr Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from undoubtedly the best World War Two Author by far. Purely factual, Irving extracts the details in an easy to read format, that can leave no questions unanswered as to how the men behind the Luftwaffe made critical mistakes during the course of the war.

[Robert Hepple · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1973, this book tells the story of the wartime Luftwaffe through the life of Field Marshal Erhard Milch. Milchs position in the high command of the Luftwaffe, supported by interviews and his personal records make this an informed readable account of the corruption and favouritism that made the Luftwaffe's higher organisational structure so inefficient and ill-equipped for what it was ultimately tasked with. That said, it is at times biased or skewed, seemingly in order to support the authors conclusion. For example, a chapter about 'Big Week' in February 1944 refers only to the alleged massive disruption caused to German aircraft production - other published histories refer to the damage to the German aircraft industry as being fairly limited, whilst emphasising the severe losses to the Jagdwaffe in both pilots and aircraft in attempting to defend the targets. It remains an interesting read, not apparently suffering from the
serious flaws and contentious subjects that have since discredited the author.

[Chris Brimmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good inside look if a little too sympathetic to Milch.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. I started reading it with a bit of reluctance, expecting uninteresting topic but it every chapter proves to be very interesting and easy to read.

[Denny Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional book. David is, by far, my favorite author when it comes to anything to do with Germany in the WW2 years. Always well referenced and he never seems to fall into the trap of 'good guy/bad guy' narratives. Writers of history could learn so much from this extraordinary author.

[J. Bryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the very few Irvings I read, long before his racism and Nazi bias became well-known. I remember this being fairly straightforward and interesting, but it's been years since I read it.