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| Night Fighters: Luftwaffe and RAF Air Combat over Europe, 1939-1945 | 
| List Price: $27.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 1 reviews)
Sales Rank: 502033
Category: Book
Authors: Colin D. Heaton, Anne-marie Lewis
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Studio: Naval Institute Press
Manufacturer: Naval Institute Press
Label: Naval Institute Press
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1591143608
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54424
EAN: 9781591143604
ASIN: 1591143608
Publication Date: October 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Night Fighters examines the historical, technological, tactical, and strategic evolution of limited visibility aerial combat as the air forces of Great Britain and Germany dueled in the night skies during WWII. The book is based on extensive research and interviews with the key planners responsible for their respective national strategies governing the conduct of the nighttime air war as well as the airmen who fought the war. This arena of WWII combat produced a plethora of technological innovations, the results of which are seen today in everyday military and civilian life. This book provides a detailed historical analysis of the men, methods, machines, and devices that forever altered the course of aviation, military, and scientific history during the air war in the night skies of WWII.
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| Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the Men, Technology, and Command & Control of Night Fighter operations December 2, 2008
"Night Fighters" is a detailed look at the men, strategy, and technology the influenced the aerial combat between the British nighttime bombers and the Luftwaffe's night fighters. This book is the perfect addition for the World War II history enthusiast looking to explore the next niche.
Heaton assumes the reader has some knowledge about Allied bomber operations, but "Night Fighters" does provide a very cursory examination of some of the topics such as the strategy for target selection, but misses others such as area-bombing versus High Altitude Daylight Precision bombing. A discussion on this last point would illustrate to the novice reader why the Luftwaffe night fighters affected mainly British bombers... Despite this criticism, the background chapter succeeds in providing the knowledge foundation for the rest of the book.
The next section of the book concentrates on the development of Luftwaffe defensive operations. Heaton discusses the creation of the Kammhuber Line, a system of defensive belts of searchlights and anti-aircraft guns, which was the most effective air defense system of the time. He follows this with a discussion on the radar enhancements to the Kammhuber line. These enhancements made the flak belts even more deadly to the Allied bombers. Heaton next introduces the readers to one of the Luftwaffe's `Iron Majors', Major Wolfgang Falck. Major Falck is the innovative genius who is credited with conceptualizing and creating the Nachtjadgfliegers, the Luftwaffe's Night Fighters.
Along with any discussion on command and control, it is essential to include intelligence operations. Heaton reveals how the German intelligence services were able to detect and predict the targets of bombing raids before the flights took off.
Heaton also discusses what is known as the "Wizard's War", a battle between British and German scientists who rapidly developed detection capabilities and the countermeasures for each one.
The book is an excellent discussion of the people, technology, command and control, and intelligence operations in support of Luftwaffe Night Fighter operations. This is the first book I have read on the topic, so I cannot compare it to similar books such as "Night Fighters: Hunters of the Reich", by David Williams. If you are interested in further reading development of British and German Radar Systems I would also recommend "THROUGH BLUE SKIES TO HELL: America's "Bloody 100th" in the Air War over Germany".
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