Luftwaffe: The Allied Intelligence Files

Air & Space Power Journal, Spring, 2005 by Robert Tate

Luftwaffe: The Allied Intelligence Files by Christopher Staerck and Paul Sinnott. Brassey's (http:// www.brasseysinc.com/Books/Features.aspx), 22841 Quicksilver Drive, Dulles, Virginia 20166, 2002, 392 pages, $31.96 (hardcover).

Authors Christopher Staerck and Paul Sinnott take a straightforward approach in their discussion of the prewar roles of British Air Intelligence, the Secret Intelligence Service, and the Air Ministry regarding Germany's Luftwaffe. They also explore American intelligence as well as the tactical intelligence resulting from daylight bombing by the US Army Air Forces and night bombing by the Royal Air Force. Knowledgeable military historians, the authors have produced a fine historical document. They include both background information and then detailed data on German fighters, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, seaplanes, and transports, profiling 47 different aircraft types in all. Each analysis addresses the aircraft's war record, performance characteristics, and intelligence history--the latter reflecting the amount of actual information we had on German aircraft during the war, some of it just now declassified from the British Public Records Office. Augmenting the text are excellent photographs, line drawings, and black-and-white artwork of many of the aircraft. Although a bit pricey, Luftwaffe: The Allied Intelligence Files is a very good resource book that would make a great addition to any Luftwaffe historian's collection.

Lt Col Robert Tate, USAFR

Maxwell AFB, Alabama