From its secret postWorld War I beginnings to its virtual destruction by the Allied air forces, the story of the German air force is best told by examining its leaders. Brilliant, ambitious, ruthless, and deceitful men like Hermann Goering, the drug-addicted Luftwaffe commander: Erhard Milch, the half-Jewish head of aircraft production: and Adolf Galland, the general of fighters who often clashed with Goering.

The author profiles these principals and others while describing the Luftwaffes battles-both in the skies and behind the scenes and explaining why it was so decisively defeated.