Messerschmitts over Sicily: Diary of a Luftwaffe Fighter Commander (Stackpole Military History Series)

Rating:
Summary: Three Weeks of Impossible Struggle.
Review: In this book Johannes Steinhoff establishes himself as a thinker as well as a fighter pilot with 176 victories. The main part of the book covers just June 21st to July 13, 1943. During this time the 77th Fighter Wing took to the skies above Sicily in a valiant but futile attempt to stop the allied landings.

It's a story of a small group of men with limited equipment (and that equipment beginning to show its age) trying to stop a flood.

This is not a story of heroic Nazi's breathing fire and mouthing slogans. It's a story of rather desparate men trying to do their best in a situation they couldn't control. Just one small step on the path to ultimate defeat.

Then the Epilogue is almost worth the cost of the book itself. With many years to reflect on the happenings during the first half of 1945 Mr. Steinhoff provides just a few pages of analysis on what a modern country has to do to maintain its position in the world.

Rating:
Summary: A Detailed Account of the Luftwaffe at War
Review: Steinhoff's tenure in the Luftwaffe spanned ten years, of which six years involved active combat. As Kommodore of JG-77, Steinhoff was responsible for the aerial defense of Sicily during the Allied Operation Husky. This book, written by the man who commanded German fighters, is pivotal in the historiography and critical to the understanding of just how that phase of the war developed. I highly recommend the book.

Rating:
Summary: Paul's review
Review: The story is great. I agree with what is in the other two reviews. But the end of the book is the best part. It gives Steinhoff's insight (25 years after the conclusion of the war) into a modern nation's needs for defense and how that defense might be constructed. This insight, following the story of the defense of Sicily, makes the book! This insight is worth your time to read.

Rating:
Summary: Air Defense Under Pressure
Review: This book will be disappointing to anyone expecting tales of aerial victories. Instead, read about the near impossibility of fighter defense under the pressure of incessant night and day raids on German airfields, the management of experienced and inexperienced (though expert) pilots, use of alternative fields, retreat, and the unreality of orders from higher level of German air force leadership. I have reread this book several times, and strongly recommend it for its reality, not its thrills.