The FIRST and the LAST
The FIRST and the LAST

The FIRST and the LAST

The German Fighter Force in World War II

Signed by General Adolf Galland KC

  • Price: £ 75

Bookplate signed by Adolf Galland on the title page

Published by Methuen & Co Ltd. First edition, reprint 1955.  368 pages plus photographs

A Near Fine condition hardback book. Clean, bright and tight with no foxing or previous owner marks. The striking Me262 dustjacket by Michael Turner is in Very Good condition, complete and unclipped with some repair and reinforcing to the reverse, but looking smart under its protective wrapper.

This is the autobiography of Adolf Galland, an outstanding fighter leader who was torn from the cockpit to defend his country – and sometimes his own pilots – in the bizarre bureaucracy of the Luftwaffe High Command. The most famous German ace and fighter leader of his generation, Galland’s story is simultaneously that of the Luftwaffe Fighter Arm, in which he served from foundation to finish.

Galland’s combat career began in the Spanish Civil War and continued from the Polish campaign of 1939 right through to the defeat of Germany in 1945, when he was flying Messerschmitt 262 jet fighters. From the outbreak of hostilities Galland rose quickly in rank and influence, becoming chief of Luftwaffe fighters, a position he lost as a result of difference with Hitler. He then returned to front line flying. Because of his high ranking and command positions he was the ideal person to assess Germany’s WWII fighter force policies and strategies and, in addition to this, he also comments on other prominent German political and military figures.

A classic aviation autobiography and still a great book on the Luftwaffe written by an expert who was actually there. A decent condition copy with a neat signature.