Description

Written by a leading expert in World War 2 air operations on the Eastern Front, this is the last in a quartet of books that together gives total coverage of air battles in this theatre of war from 1941 to 1945. It details the final phase of air operations in the East from late 1943, and then covers the German defensive operations around the River Dnepr and the Sea of Azov in September 1943, and the subsequent German retreat and the air bridge to Cherkassy in early 1944. Final coverage is given to the major Soviet offensive against the Army Group Centre in mid-1944, the fall of Romania and the autumn battles in Poland, Courland and on the Vistula, ending with the major Soviet winter offensive of early 1945 and the last ditch battles over Berlin itself. The strength of the author’s writing lies not only in the fantastic in-depth detail, but the ability to tell the story from the viewpoints of both sides and also from both strategic and tactical contexts. There is also unique eye-witness material and the text is accompanied by a large number of rare and many previously unpublished photographs, ‘biography boxes’, plus data tables, technical assessments and appendices.