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商品の説明
Book Description
Air raid sirens wail, searchlight beams flash across the sky, and the night is aflame with tracer fire and aerial explosions, as Allied bombers and German anti-aircraft units duel in the thundering darkness. Such "cinematic" scenes, played out with increasing frequency as World War II ground to a close, were more than mere stock material for movie melodramas. As Edward Westermann reveals, they point to a key but largely unappreciated aspect of the German war effort that has yet to get its full due.
Long the neglected stepchild in studies of World War II air campaigns, German flak or anti-aircraft units have been frequently dismissed by American, British, and German historians (and by veterans of the European air war) as ineffective weapons that wasted valuable matriel and personnel resources desperately needed elsewhere by the Third Reich. Westermann emphatically disagrees with that view and makes a convincing case for the significant contributions made by the entire range of German anti-aircraft defenses.
During the Allied air campaigns against the Third Reich, well over a million tons of bombs were dropped upon the German homeland, killing nearly 300,000 civilians, wounding another 780,000, and destroying more than 3,500,000 industrial and residential structures. Not surprisingly, that aerial Armageddon has inspired countless studies of both the victorious Allied bombing offensive and the ultimately doomed Luftwaffe defense of its own skies. By contrast, flak units have virtually been ignored, despite the fact that they employed more than a million men and women, were responsible for more than half of all Allied aircraft losses, forced Allied bombers to fly far above high-accuracy altitudes, and thus allowed Germany to hold out far longer than it might have otherwise.
Westermann's definitive study sheds new light on every facet of the development and organization of this vital defense arm, including its artillery, radar, searchlight, barrage balloon, decoy sites, and command components. Highlighting the convergence of technology, strategy, doctrine, politics, and economics, Flak also provides revealing insights into German strategic thought, Hitler's obsession with micromanaging the war, and the lives of the members of the flak units themselves, including the large number of women, factory workers, and even POWs who participated.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
From the Back Cover
"A remarkable study that brilliantly fills one of the most glaring gaps in the coverage of the World War II Luftwaffe."--Richard R. Muller, author of The German Air War in Russia
"There is nothing comparable in analytical depth and breadth to Westermann's account."--Horst Boog, author of Die Deutsche Luftwaffenfhrung, 1935-1945
"An exemplary work that captures the human as well as material aspects of total war and makes a convincing case for the importance of ground-based air defenses against the Combined Bomber Offensive."--Dennis Showalter, author of Tannenberg: Clash of Empires
"Well written and superbly researched, this is a major addition to the literature of air-power history. I give it my highest recommendation."--James Corum, author of The Luftwaffe
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カスタマーレビュー
最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー
4 人中、4人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
形式:ハードカバー
本書は、第1次世界大戦から、第2次世界大戦終了までのドイツ高射砲部隊の防空戦闘に関する研究書である。ドイツの高射砲というと、今までは、大砲自体に注目が集まっており、それに関する文献はかなりの数が出版されている。しかし、防空システムとしての高射砲部隊の戦闘となると、ドイツに範囲を限定せずともその数が大幅に少なくなるというのが現状である。本書は、その意味でも得がたい資料を提供している。
また、高射砲というと、命中率が低く、大量の弾薬を消費するだけで、あまり有効でなかったというイメージを抱かれることが多い。本書は、その今までのイメージを打破する資料を提供してくれる。膨大な資料を分析し、同じ時期の防空戦闘機隊と高射砲部隊の成果を対比している。それによると、高射砲部隊は、戦闘機部隊とほぼ同等もしくはそれ以上の戦果を挙げているのがわかる。また、その成果を得るために、どれだけの部隊、人員、弾薬が必要であったかも、しっかりと研究されている。これらを総合して、高射砲部隊が、ドイツ防空に果たした役割を明確に論じている。
これらの意味で、本書は、今まで脚光を浴びなかった高射砲部隊の運用に焦点を当てた研究書であり貴重なものである。この分野に興味のある方には一読をお勧めする。
また、高射砲というと、命中率が低く、大量の弾薬を消費するだけで、あまり有効でなかったというイメージを抱かれることが多い。本書は、その今までのイメージを打破する資料を提供してくれる。膨大な資料を分析し、同じ時期の防空戦闘機隊と高射砲部隊の成果を対比している。それによると、高射砲部隊は、戦闘機部隊とほぼ同等もしくはそれ以上の戦果を挙げているのがわかる。また、その成果を得るために、どれだけの部隊、人員、弾薬が必要であったかも、しっかりと研究されている。これらを総合して、高射砲部隊が、ドイツ防空に果たした役割を明確に論じている。
これらの意味で、本書は、今まで脚光を浴びなかった高射砲部隊の運用に焦点を当てた研究書であり貴重なものである。この分野に興味のある方には一読をお勧めする。
Amazon.com で最も参考になったカスタマーレビュー (beta)
Amazon.com:
6件のカスタマーレビュー
25 人中、25人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
The definitive study!
2005/3/5
形式:ハードカバー
FLAK: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses, 1914-1945 by Edward Westermann is the definitive study of Germany's ground-based air defenses. This meticulously researched book takes the reader from the early days of air defense and traces the development of ground-based air defense from its vestigial theoretical roots in WW1 through the learning days of the war in Spain and culminates with a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of ground-based versus fighter air defenses.
Westermann masterfully weaves all aspects of the development of the 88 with the other less-well-known and understood defenses used by Germany such as smoke screens and decoy sites, the high-level of damage to bombers from Flak that increased fighter kills as they pounced on stragglers, the decrease in accuracy from bombers trying to evade Flak, the coordination with night-fighters (the Wild Boars), as well as the development of improved targeting devices such as radar.
Westermann shows that in the early days of the war and indeed into 1942, the Flak arm of the Luftwaffe was taking a heavy toll on Allied bombers. He discusses the evolution of bomber strategy in dealing with the Flak, as well as decisions made by the Luftwaffe that would lead to a decrease in Flak kill averages and a precipitous drop in the effectiveness of all ground-based air defenses from 1943 on due to material shortages, bomber technology, allied countermeasures, and less skilled Flak crews such as women and children replacing trained units.
The book is a dense study filled with graphs and charts that help show the effectiveness of Flak versus fighters (and indeed shows that both were most effective when used in tandem), yet it is an easy read that is very logically laid-out.
For myself this book was an eye-opener. My grandfather was in Flak from 1938-1945. He began as a range-finder (Entfernungsmesser) operator on 88s preparing for sea-lion, and later became a radar operator. This probably saved his life. As more and more Flak men were pulled into line units to fight on the ground in Russia and elsewhere, the skilled radar operators stayed on the Western Front to monitor the daily fleets of aircraft flying to Germany and they provided what little early-warning the Luftwaffe would have until everything collapsed. It gave me a better understanding of my grandfather's service as well as an appreciation for what Westermann terms the world's most advanced air-defense network at the time.
Westermann masterfully weaves all aspects of the development of the 88 with the other less-well-known and understood defenses used by Germany such as smoke screens and decoy sites, the high-level of damage to bombers from Flak that increased fighter kills as they pounced on stragglers, the decrease in accuracy from bombers trying to evade Flak, the coordination with night-fighters (the Wild Boars), as well as the development of improved targeting devices such as radar.
Westermann shows that in the early days of the war and indeed into 1942, the Flak arm of the Luftwaffe was taking a heavy toll on Allied bombers. He discusses the evolution of bomber strategy in dealing with the Flak, as well as decisions made by the Luftwaffe that would lead to a decrease in Flak kill averages and a precipitous drop in the effectiveness of all ground-based air defenses from 1943 on due to material shortages, bomber technology, allied countermeasures, and less skilled Flak crews such as women and children replacing trained units.
The book is a dense study filled with graphs and charts that help show the effectiveness of Flak versus fighters (and indeed shows that both were most effective when used in tandem), yet it is an easy read that is very logically laid-out.
For myself this book was an eye-opener. My grandfather was in Flak from 1938-1945. He began as a range-finder (Entfernungsmesser) operator on 88s preparing for sea-lion, and later became a radar operator. This probably saved his life. As more and more Flak men were pulled into line units to fight on the ground in Russia and elsewhere, the skilled radar operators stayed on the Western Front to monitor the daily fleets of aircraft flying to Germany and they provided what little early-warning the Luftwaffe would have until everything collapsed. It gave me a better understanding of my grandfather's service as well as an appreciation for what Westermann terms the world's most advanced air-defense network at the time.
9 人中、8人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
German flak defence review
2006/3/24
形式:ペーパーバック
Good scholarly review of the subject. Goes into the politics, economics, and effectiveness of the German flak defences. The author's case for the effectiveness of the flak arm is very persuasive. Would have been nice to have had more personal recollections of ex-flak gunners.
4 人中、4人の方が、｢このレビューが参考になった｣と投票しています。
Top notch- not for everyone
2006/11/16
形式:ペーパーバック|Amazonが確認した購入
Westermann is a professor at the School for Air & Space Studies in Montgomery, Alabama, and is another of the Showalter-style of disciples. This book is very specialized, and thus not for the average WWII buff. However, if you have any interest in the subject this is great military history, touching upon social, economic & political aspects of air defense as well as standard military history stuff. It necessarily has some discussion of fighter defense as well as flak, and that discussion is well-handled and interesting enough to make me think the author should have gone on to write a companion book on the air/fighter defense aspect.
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