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1939 NAZI PHOTO BOOK ABOUT THE CRUCIAL ROLE PLAYED BY THE LUFTWAFFE IN THE GERMAN INVASION OF POLAND

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The 1939 hardcover book has a foreword by Nazi Aviation Minster Hermann Göring and a frontispiece photo of Der Führer und sein Generalfeldmarschall.

Luftwaffe schlägt zu (The Air Force Strikes) is one of the best Nazi books about the deployment of the Luftwaffe or German Air Force in the invasion of Poland in September-October 1939. It was produced in cooperation with the High Command of the Luftwaffe in Berlin and uses reports and experiences from the front lines by German aviation historian Peter Supf and other military accounts by Major Lothar Schüttel.

Above, a former Condor Legion pilot now active in Poland wearing his Tyrolean hat in the cockpit!

There are also four maps showing the progress of the battle in Poland.

The chapters cover the tense days of waiting and preparations just prior to the start of the Wehrmacht invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the first day of attack, attacking the Polish army, railroads and the city of Warsaw.

The 5-3/4 x 8-5/8 inch hardcover book has 120 pages plus 31 unnumbered glossy photo pages and was published by Im Deutschen Verlag of Berlin in 1939. The cover of this 85 year old example of Luftwaffe schlägt zu is lightly faded and the book has a name stamp on the front flyleaf. Very nice, little used condition however, and no odor.

Interspersed in the German language text are superb photos printed on glossy paper. They include Stukas attacking, airplane cockpits, Luftwaffe pilots and navigators in action, Luftwaffe men in the field enjoying food from the Feldküche, a Fieseler Storch being admired by Polish civilians, a Ju 52 transport plane with supplies, light Flak guns (above), aerial attacks, wounded soldiers in transport planes ready to return home, Staffelabzeichen on the side of a Luftwaffe plane, damaged Luftwaffe planes, and even two pilots admiring a Einsatzstock, a wooden walking stick with carved stripes representing every Feindflug or flight against the enemy (below).

The photos are attributed in the back and include Heinrich Hoffmann, Associated Press, Scherl Bilderdienst, several war correspondents and even SS-Standartenführer Gunter d’Alquen, Chief Editor of the SS newspaper, Das Schwarze Korps!