French MacLean: Luftwaffe Efficiency & Promotion Reports for the KC Winners Vol 1 & 2

[fknorr]

Has any laid hands on these books yet?



I received both volumes last night and was only able to look through a small amount of one...actually I read maybe 20 pages, but I think he did alright here with these.

To those who are not familiar, he takes the Luftwaffe Efficiency & Promotion Reports of KC winners and shows the original documents, has the english translations of such and gives a short bio of the individual w/photos where availible. Those giving the efficiency reports are Bio'd as well in the back of the book.

I personally like this type of book as it gives way more history, than say photos of awards. This would be a nice addition to the person's library who likes documents, the history behind the men, etc.

If you own say "The Field Men" or "The Camp Men" by this author, you'll kinda know what you are getting but the bios of the men are far more lengthy.

[fknorr]

I just finished reading both volumes (cover to cover, not looking at the photos and saying I was finished) and was quite pleased with these two.

There are not a lot of photos of the individuals, but some nice headgear shots - if that is what you are into like I am. There were a couple period photos of visors that would definately would not pass for "originals" today. Cool stuff!

There are over 100 Luftwaffe KC winners profiled here in their promotion/efficiency documents. There was some neat stuff in there, such as the people recommending (or not) that these people be promoted, or rated on their behavior and such. Some of these guys were trashed by their raters early on in their careers but went on to be group leaders and KC winners.

There were other things I never knew that I learned here such as fallschrimjagers being able to be awarded Luftwaffe Honor Goblets, etc.

I would also guess that about half of these guys profiled (or more) survived the war. So much for Germany not having any good pilots at the end of the war.

If you are into the Luftwaffe, KC Winner Bios (some I wish had more info), number of kills/missions, etc than this would be a nice addition to your library.

Warning: You have to be able to read to enjoy these volumes.

[Larry deZeng]

Fran -

There were something like 750 Luftwaffen- Ritterkreuzträger, yet you say that between the two volumes about 100 are covered. How did the author decide who to include and who not to include?

--BHS1956

[fknorr]

Fran -

There were something like 750 Luftwaffen- Ritterkreuzträger, yet you say that between the two volumes about 100 are covered. How did the author decide who to include and who not to include?

--BHS1956

I think he included only those he had documentation on. All the requests for promotion, other assorted documents are scanned and shown in the books. I am not sure if he "owns" these document sets or these were those he could lay his hands on. It does not focus on one segment of the Luftwaffe. There has to be 20 or more Fallschrimjager bio'd. Stuka, Fighter, Bomber, Nightfighter and recon pilots are all mentioned.

This is not a perfect biook set. If I was the author, I would have attempted more photos of those profiled. I would speculate that only 75% of the bio's have photos of the KC recipient. I would have also included stuff on the Squadrons he mentioned that they flew for, or units they fought with. None of the KC award recommendations were written (shown), so all you basically know is that they won the KC. I guess a few of the pilots were given KC's for reaching a certain number of "kills" but aside from that, nothing mentioned. If I was the author, I'd probably still be working on this set and never getting it published for I'd always want to be refining it...adding more.

Only basically the recommendation documents were shown. I know at least one person who owns a "large set" of one of the KC winners documents. With a little effort inquiring of the collecting community, I am sure he could have filled this out nicely with more items such as photos and ducuments and made it more attractive to some more "collectors" as it seems they'd rather buy picture books as opposed to reading anything.

I would give it a solid "B" as a grade for all the information he has in there.

[Larry deZeng]

Thanks for the info, Fran. I know where he got the efficiency reports from. BA-MA Freiburg has about 60,000 Luftwaffe officer personnel files. Some of these are even on microfilm. I guess he just picked out a representative selection of those with RK awards from among the 60,000 files, or those he could get without violating the German Privacy Act law.

Thanks again,

--BHS1956

[fknorr]

I am not sure if that is where he scanned everything from or not. I will have to check the books tonight and see.

I believe the ones he picked were far too random to be random, if that makes sense...?

Some of the guys were well known pilots or Fallschrimjager, the others were no-name KC winners (if there is such a thing as a "common" KC winner).

[Larry deZeng]

Yes, a lot of the RK awardees were less well-known individuals that many have never heard of. Here's an example:

WEVER, Walter. (DOB: 16.01.23 in München) (R). 1943 assigned to I./JG 51 on completion of fighter training. 09.05.44 Oblt., appt Staka 3./JG 51 (to 17.07.44). 28.01.45 awarded the Ritterkreuz. 02.45 Oblt., trf to JG 7 (to 10.04.45). 10.04.45 Oblt., Staka, 9./JG 7 KIA – in Me 262 crash near Neuruppin. Son of Luftwaffe Gen.Lt. Walter Wever (†03.06.36). Credited with c.250 combat missions and c.44 air victories.

Hell, I didn't even know Walter Wever, one of the founders of the Luftwaffe and the father of the Luftwaffe's air doctrine, even had a son until a couple of years ago. With 44 claims, I guess he just barely qualified. But he had an important father. It looks like he became a hot-shot jet pilot after he got the RK and before he was killed on 10 April 1945.

--BHS1956

[fknorr]

I looked at MacLean's acknowledgements page and he thanked countless (European) Document collectors. I also think I saw both German and American archives listed as sources but do not know how many images were gleaned from the archives.