The FIRST and the LAST

Immaculate copy with a bookplate on the title page signed by

Adolf Galland

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

A Very Fine condition hardback book. Clean, bright, tight and unread. The striking Me262 dustjacket by Michael Turner is also in Very Fine condition, complete, unclipped and as fresh as the day it was published. This book looks and feels as new despite it being 70 years old. It comes in a custom made slipcase embossed with gilt Luftwaffe wings and an obituary of Galland from the Daily Telegraph.

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 fantastic condition copy for any aviation collection.