By December 1944, the momentum of World War II was clearly in the Allies’ favor. The new front in Europe, opened on D-Day, was costly. But Germany was losing on all three fronts. Still, it reportedly took the appearance of P-51s with paper mache drop tanks to drive home the point to German leaders.
Italy was essentially lost, with German troops holding a small sliver of the northernmost territory. Russia was roaring back across the oil fields of eastern Europe, cutting Germany off from vital fuel sources. And American, Canadian and British forces were pushing for the German border.
But Hitler and the Third Reich refused to accept the reality. Germany built up massive forces for Operation Watch on the Rhine, the counteroffensive that would be the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler still played with his maps and predicted Germany victory.
And even other senior German leaders seemed to believe it. The head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, reportedly accepted reality at one key moment: the first time he saw a P-51 Mustang over Berlin.
“Wings of War” tells the history of the visionaries and the obstacles from corrupt Generals that had to be overcome to build this revolutionary aircraft.
Very interesting read, thanks. I have not read this book yet but have read of this, and also other fake displays, including tanks. It seems impossible to reach the end of different storis and histories in WW2. As always, one can enjoy a lot of reviews and comments of this book at goodreads.com Here’s a link to a brief but interesting review” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/01/wings-of-war-review-p-51-mustang-allies
Is there any way to edit one’s own post, when one belatedly notices some typically dumb typos, and yearns to fix them? Asking for a friend.
I can, but then I’m an administrator. Not having been in your position as a commentator. I don’t know. Would you like to be added as an author. Your stories of your adventures make fore great reading. I would love to have them on here along with pictures. You could have your own page with it’s own tab, or just be part of the flow in my stream of blog posts.