Product Description

A comprehensive account of German Airborne forces of World War Two. Compelling account of those men whose reputation for bravery was well founded.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #711315 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

About the Author
James Lucas served throughout the whole of World War Two as a private soldier, was captured by the Germans in Tunisia, subsequently released to take up arms again in Italy. He is the author of numerous other books, including Das Reich, and has a very special regard for German military expertise.

Customer Reviews

Informative, comprehensive but not _quite_ full marks
The overall impression I got from reading Storming Eagles was that it was informative, readable but slightly dry. The subtitle, "German Airborne Forces in WWII', gives the scope of the book - being a history of the Fallschirmjaeger from its early pre-war days as a parachute police force, to the dilution of its roll from the small-scale, parachute delivered surprise commando force (envisaged by the Luftwaffe) to the large scale, aeroplane delivered conventional (albeit elite) infantry which it later became (as perceived by the army) in order to merely plug gaps in the failing German lines.

The strengths of the book are its comprehensive family tree of structural development and its timeline of operations. If you want to know how a certain Jaeger Regiment metamorphosed from a Flieger Corps, and in what year, then this is the book for you. If you want a potted history of every conflict in which the Green Devils were thrust then you'll find this book valuable.

Its weaknesses were that - though I raced through the book, which suggests it can't have been _that_ dry, it didn't quite engage me. I think it lacked a human dimension in some way. I can't really put my finger on why I feel like this because the explanations of the prelude and the importance of each major operation are clear and well illustrated with maps; also, there are first-person accounts of some experiences in particular operations: the usual stories of courage and hardship. I just don't think there were enough of these - not in the same way, for example, that Cornelius Ryan blends the strategic overview with the detail of personal struggles at the front line in his superb 'A Bridge Too Far'. This may be because Ryan focused on one operation whereas Lucas throws his net wider. I suspect what I'm getting around to is that the book was too short to truly satisfy - all the important information was there, but the potted history needed rounding off with more personal accounts, more background on the development of parachuting and the role of parachutists and more illustrations and detail on the weapons and equipment of the Fallschirmjaeger - most or all of this IS covered in the book, some in the dedicated appendices - but just tantalizingly not quite enough.