Battle Over The Reich Vol.2: The Strategic Bomber Offensive Over Germany Volume Two 1943 - 1945: v. 2 (Battle Over the Reich: The Strategic Bomber Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945) - Hardcover

The second volume in this study assesses how, from the autumn of 1943, technology further aided the Luftwaffe's night fighter force while the intensity of RAF strikes against German oil and manufacturing targets, and also eventually against Berlin itself, increased. This resulted in a climactic battle of attrition for both sides in the night skies over the Reich. The author relates the development of both US escort strategy and the German principle of deploying µmass-against-mass' which resulted in some of the most ferocious air battles of the war in late 1944. Just as the Allies believed that air superiority had been won, the Luftwaffe introduced its revolutionary new jet fighters. Dr. Price relates the story of the strategic air offensive over Germany from both the perspective of technology as well as from the gripping and often tragic accounts of those of both sides who fought in this epic campaign.

This is a completely revised, expanded and updated edition of Dr Price's classic work, which was originally published by Ian Allan Publishing in 1973. Since it originally appeared over 30 years ago, Dr Price has gathered a significant amount of new research and data to expand and update the text and include revised information, more personal accounts, enhanced diagrams and illustrations. This new edition, to be published in two volumes, tells the story of the strategic Allied air offensive against Germany. With the aid of an analytic narrative text, diagrams and colour artwork, the campaign is examined from the viewpoints of the RAF, the USAAF and the Luftwaffe, with in-depth assessment of daylight and nocturnal operations, aircraft, weapons, radar and ground defence. There are also many accounts from the fighter aces and bomber crews who took part. Volume one examined the first part of the war, when, for the most part, it was the Allies on the defensive and the Germans striving for victory. This second volume discusses in detail the second half of the war, when the might of the USAAF 8th Air Force supplemented the experienced RAF Bomber Command in the skies over Nazi Germany. It covers the period from the build-up to the great Normandy landings of 6 June 1944 through the Allied advance through France and the Low Countries on to Germany itself and ultimate victory. In examining the period, the book highlights the differing tactics employed by the RAF and the USAAF and the successes and failures of the Luftwaffe during the period. Whilst aspects of the bomber offensive, particularly towards the end of the war, have become controversial, few would deny the necessity of the campaign in the ultimate defeat of Hitler's Germany. When it was first published, Battle over the Reich was regarded as a definitive account of the bomber offensive against Nazi Germany. Copies of the early editions are now much sought after by historians and collectors. This revised and enlarged edition will make a classic work available again to a new generation of historians and enthusiasts who will not fail to be impressed by the depth and detail of Dr Price's research.