The legendary Luftwaffe commander Adolf Galland's memoirs The First and the Last are a classic of World War II literature, first published in 1955, about his remarkable career which started as a fighter pilot in the Legion Kondor in Spain in 1935 and extended to Me 262s at the end of World War II. Galland was an Ace, with 104 victories, and one of the great characters of the Luftwaffe. Before he wrote The First and the Last, however, Galland had been debriefed by Allied intelligence at the end of the War and the reports that he wrote, and reports of interrogations, are now presented in print for the first time. Debriefs from fourteen Luftwaffe officers are presented in the new book The Luftwaffe Fighter Force: The View from the Cockpit, in thirty-four chapters. Eighteen of these chapters are by Adolf Galland, or written in partnership by him with another officer. The chapters contributed by Galland to the new book are: 1. History and Developments of GAF Fighter Commands by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch. 2. The Organization and Function of Fighter Units by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 3. A History of the Twin-Engine Fighter Force by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Oberstleutnant Robert Kowalewski, Major Nolle, and Oberst Eschenauer. 4. German Fighter Pilots: Equipment and Service by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 5. Mobility of Fighter Units by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär. 6. Escort Tactics by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 8. Fighter Tactics: The Free Hunt by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär. 10. Fighter Escort for Ship Convoys and Naval Units by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär, Oberstleutnant Walther Dahl and Oberst Edgar Petersen. 11. Protection of Naval Forces and Convoys by Fighter Forces by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 12. Fighter-Bomber Tactics by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 21. The Evolution of the Defense of the Reich by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär, and Oberstleutnant Walther Dahl. 22. Attacks on Heavy Bombers by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 23. Weapons for Combating Four-Engine Bombers by Day by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär, Oberstleutnant Walther Dahl and Oberst Edgar Petersen. 27. Experiences in Combat against the Boeing Fortress II and Consolidated Liberator (1942) by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 28. Tactical Regulations for SE and TE Fighter Formations in Air Defense (1943) by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 30. GAF Opinions of Allied Aircraft by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Leutnant Klaus Neumann, Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär, and Generalmajor Hubertus Hitschhold. 33. Plans of the German Fighter Force for the Continuation of World War II by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland. 34. The Most Important Mistakes of the Luftwaffe as Seen from the Standpoint of the GAF Fighter Force by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland and Generalleutnant Joseph 'Beppo' Schmid. The Luftwaffe Fighter Force: The View from the Cockpit has been edited for publication by David C. Isby. He writes in his Introduction: "This book is a collection of German fighter leaders' views of different elements of their part in the Second World War. The authors all led from the cockpit, often with great success, as is shown by their score of air-to-air victories (indeed, with its multiple authors, this book has the highest victory total of any book on air combat). They were the men who determined – usually through improvisation rather than efficient German staff work – how the Luftwaffe fighter force was to do battle throughout the Second World War. These accounts are written by professionals, for other professionals. The authors compiled most of these documents as prisoners of war, under the authority of the US Army Air Forces. ... These documents represent the command 'debrief' of many of the Luftwaffe's fighter leaders, being done weeks or months rather than years after the flying and fighting had stopped. It was good that these debriefs were done while memories were fresh. ... These documents represent the view from the cockpit, rather than from headquarters. The authors were operators rather than strategists. Galland is the unifying voice in this book. He is the primary 'author' of each of the lengthy chapters except those compiled by his ground attack counterpart, Generalmajor Hubertus Hitschhold. Galland's force of personality comes through in his accounts, both the interrogations and those he wrote himself. In addition to the postwar debriefs, some of Galland's wartime tactical writings are also included. In them, he can be seen as trying to solve the ultimately insoluble operational problems confronting the German fighter force. The wartime documents show him working with combat experience to determine the best counter to the formations of USAAF heavy bombers, first recommending head-on attacks in 1942, then relegating them to a secondary tactic in 1943; putting these tactics in context there is a 1944 document on the operational level of the defense of the Reich." Other books of German World War II debriefs published by Greenhill include Fighting in Hell and The Anvil of War, edited by Peter Tsouras, Hitler's Ardennes Offensive edited by Danny S. Parker and Spearhead for Blitzkrieg edited by Dr Alfred Price. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 86 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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