Defenders of the Reich cover art

Defenders of the Reich

The Luftwaffe’s War Against America’s Bombers

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Defenders of the Reich

By: Robert Forsyth
Narrated by: Laurence Dobiesz
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury Presents Defenders of the Reich by Robert Forsyth, read by Laurence Dobiesz.

The story of the Luftwaffe fighter arm’s desperate defence of the Third Reich from the growing Allied bomber offensive in World War II.

The Reichsverteidigung (Defence of the Reich) was a do or die campaign that saw the very best fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe attempt to defend German skies from increasingly large formations of RAF and USAAF medium and heavy bombers. Flying both piston-engined and, eventually, the first jet-engined fighters to see operational service, the Jagdflieger employed a wide range of weapons and tactics in an effort to blunt the Allied air offensive across Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe.

Defenders of the Reich focusses on the story of the pilot, his aircraft, his weaponry, his draining, dangerous missions and Luftwaffe tactics against the USAAF and the RAF bombers from the summer of 1942 through to VE Day. They fought until they were all but obliterated as USAAF and RAF fighters decimated their ranks in the air and targeted their airfields in devastating strafing attacks.

Leading Luftwaffe historian Robert Forsyth uses German and Allied archival documents coupled with interviews with former Jagdwaffe pilots, to tell the history of this last-ditch aerial campaign from the perspective of the Luftwaffe.©2025 Robert Forsyth (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Air Forces Armed Forces Europe Germany Military Aviation
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Fascinating topic, well researched and engagingly written by Robert. Narrator ruins the audiobook experience unfortunately. Although the narration is crisp and accents convincing, he sounds bored and uninterested in parts, occasionally tries to inject some interest when reading out military designations, then falls back into disinterest. I’d still recommend this audiobook but maybe listen to a clip first to see if the narration bothers you.

Fascinating story marred by narration

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