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THE FIRST AND THE LAST by Adolf Galland

THE FIRST AND THE LAST

By

Pub Date: Nov. 15th, 1954
Publisher: Holt

Yet another view of World War II from the German lines, this time an aerial one,- that of the man who acted as General of the Fighting Arm of the Luftwaffe under Goering. Galland reviews the war from the Battle of Britain to the 1945 downfall. He relates his battle with Hitler to use the fighter as a defensive weapon while Hitler concentrated on his ideal of the Blitz Bomber; he follows the strategy of both sides in the air war with many statistics on air strengths; he tells of the final effort with jets and rocket fighters. The story of internal strife reveals the relations between Hitler and the Luftwaffe he felt had let him down and is a fascinating aspect of the war. Particular episodes in the war, such as the Channel dash from Brest to Norway, Hitler's sending fighters into the retreating lines in the west, dogfights over Britain, the bombing of Hamburg, give a vivid picture of the war. Politics are evaded except for Galland's insistence that Hitler's main aim was the destruction of Bolshevism and that Hitler would have preferred not to fight with the West -- consequently the delays in particular operations during the attack on Britain (some were due to military necessity, according to his interpretation)... a claim which present-day thought may possibly accept.