LUFTWAFFE IN AFRICA

LUFTWAFFE IN AFRICA
by Jean-Louis Roba


This Casemate Illustrated edition covers the period of January 1941 to May 1943 when the Luftwaffe was active over the skies of the North African desert, through to the conclusion of the campaign in Tunisia.
The narrative contains a brief  summary of both bombing raids and air battles in date order, whilst providing both the units involved and any recorded losses.

Despite this book concentrating on the Luftwaffe, the book interestingly mentions what was dubbed the "English porcupines" by the Germans. I do not remember ever reading before about the RAF's tactic of dropping barbed wire with their bombs when attacking Axis airfields. The idea being an attempt to puncture enemy aircraft tyres on takeoff. It was deemed a pretty useless idea as the ground staff simply raked the ground beforehand. 

The narrative also notes the key moments of the campaign on the ground which the Luftwaffe supported Rommel's forces along with targeting Allied held airfields, coastal ports and shipping.
With the numbers of aircraft limited and losses hard to replace, the Luftwaffe would often fly these sorties from Sicily and Greece.

In addition to the narrative, useful colour maps, aircraft profiles and tables showing the Luftwaffe's strengths at different periods provide useful information. 
There are also a host of excellent photographs of both Luftwaffe aircraft and their crews, many of which are in colour.

This is another impressive publication in this publisher's 'Illustrated' series. A great read for both the general reader as well as providing some very useful reference information for research.

The paperback edition is available now published by Casemate Publishing. 
I thank Casemate UK for this review copy. 





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