Luftwaffe Schlachtgruppen

By John Weal

One of the most important, and yet least publicised, components of the front-line Luftwaffe was the Schlacht, or ground attack, arm. This book details the Schlacht units who were in the thick of the fighting from the first day of the war until the last. They played a vital part in the heady successes of the early Blitzkrieg campaigns and went on to perform an equally essential role in the dark hours of last ditch defence and ultimate defeat. In between, they fought in all defensive battles: on the eastern front at Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin; in the west, by night, over Normandy, the Ardennes and the Rhine.

The color plate section of the book has profiles of the following, disperate aircraft:

HS 123A
HE 51B
Bf 109-4
Bf 109E
Bf 109E-7
HS 129B
Fw 190F-2
Fiat Cr.42
Fokker CV-E
Ju 87D

All of which were flown by this squadron. Also of note is the fact that this Ace pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel was part of this distinguished unit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Aug 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781472805355

John Weal

John Weal is Osprey's primary Luftwaffe author and artist. He has written, illustrated and/or supplied artwork for several titles in the Aircraft of the Aces series. He owns one of the largest private collections of original German-language literature from World War 2, and his research is firmly based on this huge archive.