Luftwaffe Gallery 7 : AGAINST ENGLAND!

Hey lads, not to worry, we’ve got nothing against the English as the title of this new Luftwaffe Gallery might suggest! Quite the contrary. Indeed, this attitude was probably shared by most of the pre-war German pilots – a period of mutual respect – until propaganda got in the way, followed by military reality. When cartoonists took up the subject “Against England”, they literally went wild, pulling out all the stops, contradicting the supposed austerity in the unit and personal decoration of Luftwaffe aircraft as some claim. It is remarkable to note that within each unit’s ranks existed true artists, yet the expression of this expertise disappeared progressively as the rate of aircraft and manpower losses increased. While the air war between the RAF and the Luftwaffe initially may have appeared chivalrous it quickly became merciless and even ugly when German Jabos targeted civilian infrastructures and vehicles in order to harass the British population. Since nocturnal combat mainly involved British crews fighting their German counterparts over their homeland we take this opportunity to present the continuation of the article published in the previous issue, which focused on daytime claims. And there is so much to say and reveal on the subject that we were forced to adopt the 96-page format previously reserved for Special Issues.

242 photos (many of them published for the first time) 13 colour artwork