Jg 26

Rating:
Summary: Riveting
Review: A friend reccomended this book to me because I was interested in WW2. I decided to buy it (It was only 5 bucks) Well anyway, I started the book and after the first 50 pages, I was hooked. I didn't set this book down for 4 days, until I was done. The descriptions of Aerial combat are great. If you like WW2, The German Luftwaffe, READ THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece !!!
Review: Don Caldwell wrote an amazing book about one of Luftwaffe's most capable and well led fighter units of WW II. With an insight look through the files, he takes us on a six-year journey of dogfights against RAF and USAAF bombers and fighters, in a fighter group full of skilled aces and dare-devil pilots, which, like all Luftwaffe, suffered terrible losses in the end. If there was one such book for every famous fighter group of WW II, history would be well served!

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books about the Luftwaffe
Review: Donald Caldwell is one of the few American writers that have attempted the monumental task of writting about German military units during WWII. He brings to life the actions of JG 26, the best flyers of the Luftwaffe. When you read this book, you feel like you are in the planes and in dogfights over the Channel. This is the unit that Adolf Galland commanded before he became the General of the Fighter Arm of the Luftwaffe. The First and the Last by Galland, Fighter General (biography of Galland) and JG 26 should be the recommended trilogy for anyone interested in German air combat on the Western Front during WWII. A good read

Rating:
Summary: CALDWELL, PLEASE GIVE US ANOTHER ONE !
Review: For only US$ 5,00, the entire hostory of one of Germany's most sucessful fighter WIngs of WW II, one unit that always faced the best of ALlied opposition in planes and bomber. IT's great and exciing to follow the steps and fates of fighter aces like Priller, Adolf Galland, Mietusch, Munchenberg, Vogt, "Wutz" Galland and Borris. Once you begin reading, you can't stop until you finish the book. Amazing!

Rating:
Summary: A FIRST CLASS TREATMENT OF JAGDGESCHWADER 26
Review: I echo the sentiments of all the other reviewers in lauding this book. This is AN ABSOLUTE GEM for anyone with an interest in World War II aerial combat. Comprehensive, well-researched, and highly readable, "JG 26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe" should be considered as the standard work about one of the premiere German fighter units that saw combat almost exclusively in Europe between 1939 and 1945.

Rating:
Summary: I thought it was a pleasure to read.
Review: I have to say first that I liked this book. Saying that I still have it on my bookshelf, but will never read it again. If you are interested in WWII, especially the Luftwaffe, this is a good book with a large amount of information. What I did not like about it was the authors constant use of statistics. After every mission described, a list of shoot downs, separations, and losses is given, it got to the point where I was skipping pages just to avoid the constant list of numbers. The book seemed like it was someones college term paper, with a point made, and several pages to back it up.

The research is undenyably good, and the stories of combat action make for good reading, but in the end the book bogs down with nothing but lists of numbers.

Rating:
Summary: The Luftwaffe's Finest: JG 26
Review: JG 26 was the perhaps the most famous of all of the German fighter
squadrons during the Second World War. The squadron was created prior to the war shortly after Hitler came to power and first participated in the invasion of France in 1940, where it served well. It was during the following Battle of Britain, however, that the squadron, under the command of Adolf Galland, rose to prominence. Following the this phase in the war, JG 26 remained in western Europe, although several detachments were sent to Russia and the Mediterranean Theater, where they proved to be extraordinarily successful. In 1942, the British and Americans began a systematic strategic bombing campaign against France and Germany, and the squadron was in the forefront of the "Defense of the Reich." Although they were responsible for a great number of the American bombers lost, it was a losing battle from the beginning, and by the time of the D-Day invasion, the squadron, like the Luftwaffe in general, was but a shadow of its former glory. The men of JG 26, however, fought on regardless, and continued to fly sorties until the very last days of the war.

JG 26: Top Guns of the Luftwaffe is simply an excellent book. Since much primary documentation was destroyed at the end of the war, Caldwell had little to work with; he therefore had to rely mainly on testimonies of surviving pilots, Josef Priller's German language history of the squadron, Allied records and over a thousand secondary sources. The result is as complete a book as can be written about a German fighter squadron during the Second World War, and thus is valuable and very interesting resource.

Rating:
Summary: Tally, ho!
Review: Not thrilling, but interesting, grim, illuminating. Even it's creakiness reflects something German, the will to "grind it out," even when this doesn't work. Worth reading, but a little stiff in the collar.

Rating:
Summary: The Epic Struggle For The Sky
Review: This book details the day to day life of the brave airman of JG-26. From commander down to the enlisted piolots and ground crews this unit has been through hell and back. This book is a must for the WW2 Aviation enthusiast!

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: This book was a very interesting book. I enjoyed reading it. The author went into extensive detail describing the organization of a luftwaffe fighter unit. If you enjoyed this book the author published a pictorial history of this unit, I would recommend it.