WWII Aviation Books by Charles E. MacKay
4 titles · published 2025 to 2026
Archival studies of the Luftwaffe and German aviation 1919 to 1945: procurement, underground factories, armament and the Fedden Mission.
Start here: This was the Enemy: The Luftwaffe 1945
Recommended first in the reader’s guide.
This was the Enemy: The Luftwaffe 1945 by Charles E. MacKay, a history from 1919 to the Battle of Britain: Lipetsk, the Condor Legion and U-234.
288 pages · 8 May 2025 · Volume 1 of 3, This Was the Enemy£12.89This Was the Enemy Volume Two by Charles E. MacKay covers Luftwaffe procurement, underground factories and Rheinmetall and Mauser armament.
288 pages · 24 November 2025 · Volume 2 of 3, This Was the Enemy£12.89This Was the Enemy Volume Three by Charles E. MacKay covers Luftwaffe statistics 1923-1945, Goering debriefs, the Limoges raid and the Dumbarton mine.
218 pages · 11 August 2026 · Volume 3 of 3, This Was the Enemy£15.03A history of the 1945 inspection of the defeated German aircraft industry led by Roy Fedden, by Charles E. MacKay.
214 pages · 21 October 2026 · In the series, This Was the Enemy£14.95
About this collection
These four volumes form the This Was the Enemy series on the Luftwaffe and the wartime German aircraft industry. Volume One, The Luftwaffe 1945 (ISBN 9781838056780), traces the German air force from its clandestine inter-war rebuild after 1919 through the Condor Legion in Spain, the Battle of Britain, the aircraft manufacturers, and piston and gas-turbine aero-engine programmes including Jumo, BMW, and Heinkel Hirth. Volume Two (ISBN 9781838056797) covers the procurement of aircraft and bombs, the underground factories, front-line Luftwaffe aircraft, and armament by Rheinmetall Borsig and Mauser. The Volume Three Supplement (ISBN 9781066634507) covers Luftwaffe statistics from 1923 to 1945, the de-brief of Hermann Goering and Hanna Reitsch's de-brief on him, the 617 Squadron raid on the Gnome et Rhône works at Limoges, recoilless guns for aircraft, German jet-engine aid to Japan, the Berlin Airlift, the 30 mm Aden cannon, and the BM1000 Dumbarton mine. The Fedden Mission to Germany Final Report (ISBN 9781066634514), edited by C. Barrowman, presents Sir Roy Fedden's 1945 British technical mission to inspect German jet engines, airframe manufacturing, wind tunnels, swept-wing aerodynamics, and the underground factories at Nordhausen.
Series in this collection
- This Was the Enemy (4 titles, in reading order)
Read more about WWII Aviation
- Luftwaffe History Books: A Reader's Guide to German Aircraft, Jets and Industry, 1914-1945
- Messerschmitt Me 262: The First Operational Jet Fighter, 1944-1945
- The Luftwaffe in 1945: Jets, Fuel, Pilots and the Final Collapse
- Arado Ar 234 Blitz: The World's First Operational Jet Bomber and Reconnaissance Aircraft
- This Was the Enemy Volume Three: Luftwaffe Statistics, Goering De-briefs and the Dumbarton Mine
- The Fedden Mission to Germany, 1945: Inside the Defeated German Aircraft Industry
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Save 5% on 2 books or 10% on 3, applied at checkout. Posted from Glasgow.