Bagration to Berlin — The Final Air Battles in the East 1944-1945 — ** Slightly damaged dust jacket **

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Written by a leading expert in air operations over the Eastern Front in World War Two, this is the last volume in a critically acclaimed chronological quartet of books that, together, provide total coverage of the air campaigns and battles in this theatre of war from 1941 to 1945. This final volume, which illustrates the little-appreciated importance played by air power on both sides during these epic operations, opens by describing how the German Army Group Centre developed a 'master of defence' strategy, which inflicted atrocious losses on the Red Army's attack formations in 1942 and 1943. The book explores the German defensive operations around the River Dnepr and the Sea of Azov in September 1943, as well as the subsequent German retreat and the air bridge operation to Cherkassy in early 1944. The author also examines the major Soviet offensive against Army Group Centre in mid-1944, the fall of Romania and the autumn battles in Poland, Courland and on the Vistula, ending with the major Soviet winter offensive of early 1945 against the Neisse and Oder rivers and the last-ditch battles over Berlin itself. Initially there was a gap in quality between the two opposing air forces but by the spring of 1944 the Soviet Air Force demonstrated its own growing abilities, defeating the Wehrmacht in the battle for the Crimea with an overwhelming air assault. This led to the greatest battle fought during World War 2 – ‘Operation Bagration’, when in the summer of 1944, the Soviets annihilated Germany’s powerful Army Group Centre. In a stubborn concentration of power, the Luftwaffe managed to regain dominance in the air over the Eastern Front as late as in February 1945, but were eventually overcome by an intense and dramatic struggle by the Soviet Air Force; an annihilation which saw some of the most intense air fighting of the entire war. The strength of Christer Bergström's writing lies not only in its outstanding detail, but also in its ability to relate the campaign from the viewpoint of both sides and strategic and tactical contexts. There is also unique eye-witness material and the text is accompanied by a large number of rare and often unpublished photographs, plus data tables, technical assessments and appendices. Bagration to Berlin forms the most authoritative work of reference on the subject for aviation historians and students of World War 2.