Defenders of the Reich: The Luftwaffe's War Against America's Bombers - Hardcover

by Robert Forsyth (Author)

The story of the Luftwaffe fighter arm's desperate defence of the Third Reich from the growing Allied bomber offensive in World War II.

The Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) was a do or die campaign that saw the very best fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe attempt to defend German skies from increasingly large formations of RAF and USAAF medium and heavy bombers. Flying both piston-engined and, eventually, the first jet-engined fighters to see operational service, the Jagdflieger employed a wide range of weapons and tactics in an effort to blunt the Allied air offensive across Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe.

Defenders of the Reich focusses on the story of the pilot, his aircraft, his weaponry, his draining, dangerous missions and Luftwaffe tactics against the USAAF and the RAF bombers from the summer of 1942 through to VE Day. They fought until they were all but obliterated as USAAF and RAF fighters decimated their ranks in the air and targeted their airfields in devastating strafing attacks.

Leading Luftwaffe historian Robert Forsyth uses German and Allied archival documents coupled with interviews with former Jagdwaffe pilots, to tell the history of this last-ditch aerial campaign from the perspective of the Luftwaffe.

Author Biography

Robert Forsyth is an author, editor and publisher, specializing in military aviation and military history. He is the author of over 25 titles for Osprey Publishing, on the aircraft, units and operations of the Luftwaffe, including To Save an Army (2022), an interest he has held since boyhood. He has written articles for The Aviation Historian, Aerojournal, Aeroplane Monthly, Aviation News, Combat Aircraft, and FlyPast and he is a member of the Editorial Board of The Aviation Historian.