Like the title explains, this book offers commentary from various echelons in the German Air Force on the planning and production of fighters and bombers, the deployment and assignments, the policy, the conflicts and the strategic misuse of this vital branch of the military. As well, the author gives a great deal of background on the manufacturers, the competition for the new air speed record, the celebrated pilots who tested the new marvels, the hardships of restricted supply, the motives and explanations of the awarding of production contracts, and many more insights into the German Luftwaffe from its inception, and from the ground up. While a little too technical in naming every formation and an insistence on listing every make and model of plane for every sortie, this book has a lot of valuable information on the German military apparatus, specifically the air arm.

Review An absorbing account of Luftwaffe's triumph and tragedy in World War II . The author expatiates on operations of German airforce in different theatres of war -Poland ,Norway ,France and Low countries ,Balkans ,Russia- when Hitlers's conquest was at its height .The principal credit for making "Blitzkrieg' a success must go to Luftwaffe. Its support of ground forces -direct ,indirect -brought the Polish campaign to a swift conclusion .Later it helped the German armour to breach French defences at Sedan on May 13,1940.Allied airforces intervened ,made a desperate attempt to block Guderian's tanks from crossing river Meuse which was repulsed by the Luftwaffe fighters.Once the breakthrough was effected, panzers rattled and rumbled towards the English channel. In the process they outran infantry cover, consequently the Luftwaffe was assigned the task of protecting vulnerable flanks of armoured thrust which it did brilliantly.On May 21-22 ,1941 ,Royal Navy in Cretan waters was exposed to the full fury of German airforce.This led to the first air-sea battle in the history of war .After suffering crippling losses the English fleet had to retreat having paid the penalty of operating without aircover Then it was largely responsible for the triumphant German advance upto the gates of Moscow. The book has exploded a few myths. The strength of German airforce during the beginning of hostilities was grossly exaggerated by Anglo-American historians of the war.During German invasion of Poland, Luftwaffe had at its disposal only 1302 first-line aircraft. Anglo-Saxon media has reviled the German bombing of Warsaw,Rotterdam. The author ,however, has given different interpretation on what caused this bombing,.Both cities were barricaded and bitterly defended. Repeated attempts to make them surrender through negotiations failed The book has a few drawbacks. The section dealing with ' Battle of Britain ' appears outdated. Ever since the publication of group capatain F.W.Winterbotham's book 'Ultra Secret" hitherto accepted history of world war needed re-interpretation . But the author can be absolved of this lapse since he wrote the book at a time when Ultra was still a top secret.Author never had the privilege to know that Luffwaffe ciphers had been broken and its operational orders read by the British intelligence.

Also ignored are developments in the field of electronics .Just as the Battle of Atlantic, technical progress made a deep impact on the fortunes of airwar.Germans had radars like Freya, Wurzburg to detect the approach of Allied bomber formations.British countered by deploying jammers (Mandrel,Carpet) on aircraft accompanying bomber formations helping them to penetrate German airspace, Then there were devices like Liechtenstein SN2.RWR(radar warning receiver) called Naxos, The former was an airborne interception radar, Latter a passive device capable of picking radar emisssions from Allied bombers which were picked up at double the distance at which bombers radars were able to detect German fighters. This gave fighters ample time to plan manoeuvres . Naxos picked up emisssions from H2's radar installed on RAF pathfinder force ( PFF) which were assigned the task of marking targets to be bombed by dropping phosphorous flares.Naxos guided the fighters directly to this aircraft.The second German RWR was Flensburg which received emissions from British airborne radar Monica fitted on to the tail of RAF bombers.Thanks to progress in the field of electronics total destruction of Berlin in the spring of 1944 was averted.

Upon reading the book I had a feeling that HerrBekker wrote it with the intention of extolling the achievments of Luftwaffe. No doubt Germans had superior planes at their disposal. Till the advent of American P-51 Mustang fighters Luftwaffe's FW-190 was the best air superiority fighter.This was amply demonstrated during the dogfights with the British Spitfires in 1941,42,43 above the English channel. Much before the outbreak of war Germans had experimented rocket,turbo-jet powered planes (HE-176,HE-178) However the lead was not exploited and the advantage squandered due to myopia of Luftwaffe General Staff. Reason for the decline of Luftwaffe is not difficult to seek. Being predominantly tactical airforce whose mission was to support the army in its blitz campaigns, it lacked strategic offensive and operational level defensive capabilities. Conceived for short-term campaigns the changing nature of war forced Luftwaffe to embark on number of tasks and its weakness was soon exposed .The belief that Germany had won the war led to curtailment in long-term planning and development.As a result the airforce was saddled with obsolete aircraft.Finally Hitler's insistence on offensive air operation meant that the potentialities of Germany's first operational jet fighter (ME-262) could not be fully exploited.

Since the end of WW II, it seems that occurred an epidemy of books written about the Luftwaffe, mainly by American / British writers, with bombastic titles like " Rise and Fall of The Luftwaffe", "History of the Luftwaffe"..etc... FOrget all about them. Cajus Bekker's book is the best ever written about the subject and comes from a remarkable neutral point of view, considering the fact the writer is a German. In only one volume, he sets up the reader in the real demands placed upon the Luftwaffe even before the War, and shows the way that the German publicity machine worked over their initial sucesses. HE also describes all kinds of combat squadrons, including bomber, dive-bombers and reccon, without talking only about the fighter pilots, differently from so many books. Great! A War Aviation fan must have this one!!

Christmas, Easter, Sunday and Halloween were around when Jesus walked this planet. Did He or His apostles celebrate ANY of them? NO! Why are you? Because for centuries, your uneducated ancestors were misled by the Catholic Church and it's daughters. Now you too can read. You have no excuse.

Research further. Don't buy this book if you want to know the REAL truth. Christmas is NOT about Jesus in any way shape or form. No matter how hard you try. It is about the pagan worshiping of Nimrod, Noah's grandson. When Nimrod was alive, he was a great hunter and great warrior. When he died, people thought if he was so great in life, he must be equally as great in death and worshiped him on his birthday, the winter solstace. They felt if they appeased him, he would help make the winter go away faster and bring the spring in sooner for good hunting and farming. To appease him, they burned yule logs and decorated trees.

Emperor Constantine wanted to keep his favorite pagan holidays when he adopted Christianity, so he turned the Judaic worshiping of the Jewish Messiah into a perverted religion full of pagan practice such as Christmas, Easter (worshiping Ishtar the goddess of nature and fertility, hence the eggs, grass, baby animals), Sun Day (worshiping the Sun God which had to be done on the first day of the week), Halloween (a Druid festival for the dead), etc. So he threw in some stuff about Jesus to make the Christians happy and packaged it around Jewish holidays (Easter around Passover, Christmas around Chanukah) and very, very few questioned it. Those who did were silenced forever.

Have you ever wondered why there are no Christmas trees in the bible? Why the apostles never did the holidays that the church as we know it is doing. It's because they were Jewish, not pagan.

No matter what you feel about this review, remember one thing:
In all of these things, you are breaking the first commandment, and He is indeed jealous!

My recommendation: Follow the biblical feasts and holidays just like God commanded. You will find it much more fulfilling and will make Him happier.

Now you know the REAL truth in a nutshell.

Blessings in Yeshua! (Jesus's real name. He is afterall Jewish, not Greek.)

This Gold Medallion Book Award title (for excellence in Evangelical Christian literature) is easy to overlook, since it appears to be yet another illustrated account of the birth of Jesus. Instead, what we have here is a recognized historian writing a kid-friendly book explaining some of the historical context of the Nativity story by having a mother answer her inquisitive child's many questions.

As Christopher's mom reads from gospel of St. Luke, chapter 2, she responds to her eight-year old son's questions about Caesar Augustus, registering for the census, why Joseph was not the father of Jesus Christ, why God chose Mary to be Jesus' mother, how old she might have been, where she lived, the lineage of King David, why Christmas is celebrated on December 25, what the stable was like, why there wasn't any room at the inn, why the shepherds were terrified at the sight of the angel, and how St. Luke knew "all this stuff."

This book is highly recommended to Christians of all traditions, as well as to non-Christian families who may be curious about what's really behind the Christmas story. As the author states in his brief introduction, many "children's Christmas books are often long on fancy and short on fact." I would agree when he says, "these pages...return the Christmas focus to where it belongs." The gospel story is no fairy tale, and here Paul L. Maier places it within the context of history, so children like Chris in this story can learn "about real people and real things that really happened."

Young Christopher is tired of fairytales, and wants his mother to begin reading real stories to him. With Christmas approaching, his mother comes to him with the Bible, to read him the story of the very first Christmas, as found in the Book of Luke. Together, they read the passage, and discuss many things.

This is a great book. The text of the story was simple enough for my 7-year-old son to understand, and I believe that his reading the story will have more impact than my reading it to him. The illustrations by Francisco Ordaz are absolute masterpieces, and add greatly to the impact of the story. I recommend this book 100%!

I had hoped that this book would be more like "Intended for Pleasure," but it is more about case studies of troubles marriages and how negative emotions can affect the sex life in a Christian marriage. It's less of a manual, and more self-help.

Problems in the bedroom? Never fear. *** BEGIN HERE*** Whatever you do, please don't go $pending thou$and$ of dollar$ on marriage counseling (like me) BEFORE you check out this handly little "how to" book written by the experts. Sex in the Christian Marriage is an excellent resource for any Christian couple interested in achieving the true spiritual oneness that God intended marriage to be. New and old Christians (even the really old ones) will benefit from the anatomical and practical information regarding the differences in the sexes. The content has a distinctly straightforward medical spin and lays out the kind of information you would expect to get in a good premarital sex education class or at a marriage seminar, but you probably won't because most people are not willing to teach others the detailed educational info you will find in this book. Plus, the M.D.'s are shrinks and at least one of them is bolder than the average shrink.

Since lack of knowledge may be a hindrance to some couples I'd recommend reading it just to be on the safe side and to be certain both mates have the same intentions and are fully committed to a healthy biblical oneness in marriage. Authored by two Christian M.D.'s and ex-pastor, Richard Meier, now a Marriage and Family Therapist practicing at the Paul Meier New Life Outpatient Clinic in Richardson, Texas, along with his wife, Lorraine, they've utilized many years of counseling experience to provide sound medical knowledge on a variety of disorders and encouragement through case studies with some very happy endings. Those who did not live happily ever after, however, have not been included. If you have a resistant spouse, don't waste another moment waiting for them to see things your way, read this book and make practical applications in your personal behavior which will affect your marriage. God will sort things out. You may find your spouse pleasantly surprised when you take the initiative to spice things up a bit. Locate the local candle shops, bath and body shops, Christian music store and pick up a new nightie or two while you're busy filling up that shopping cart.

This book is a MUST for all couples with young children in the home. The Enemy likes to attack young fathers while young mothers are busy focusing on the needs of small children. Men are often working longer hours in order for their wives to stay home with young ones and men face many temptations in the workplace. Every father of preschoolers ought to carry a copy of this book in his briefcase for some light reading at lunchtime. Some men may need to carry it in their front shirt pocket as a reminder or as a badge of marriage. (Great stocking stuffer too, the book is just the right size for your love's Christmas stocking!) Some men may get fresh ideas after reading this book and realize that women would prefer their time and attention versus material items.

Those dabbling in cyberporn or who think just one visit to Hooters or the Cafe Risque' for lunch won't hurt anything are deceived. (It's much like Lays Potato Chips, it's impossible to stop after just one visit to the chip & dip bowl but those thin chips deceive the eye and when you take a look in the mirror the results begin to affect you sooner than you think). Any married man who is surfing the net in his spare time looking for pornsites or exploring the Sports Illustrated swimsuit video should seriously be focusing that attention upon his wife INSTEAD, that is, if he doesn't want to be the Enemy's next target. It can happen to you. You don't know what you have until you've lost it. Consider this paperback to be preventive medicine. I recommend this great little guide book wholeheartedly to all newlyweds and oldyweds alike. It's certain to motivate you to celebrate with your very best friend the marriage God blessed you with and to assist you in achieving true oneness as God intended. Submitted by V.L. Wight

I bought this as an introduction to Arthur Ford, and it serves that purpose admirably. It is a shortish volume published by the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, which Ford was instrumental in founding. It is, therefore, solidly pro-Ford -- but it doesn't ignore his personal flaws or the controversies surrounding his mediumship. It consists of passages from Ford's own writings as well as the writings of his closest associates. One particularly interesting part concerns an auto wreck in which Ford's sister and a friend were killed and he was left in a coma. Writing 25 years before anyone had heard the term "Near Death Experience," he described a classic NDE. In case you aren't familiar with Ford, he had nearly a 50-year career. Two of his main claims to fame were solving the riddle of the message Houdini had left for his wife ("Rosabelle, believe") and putting Bishop Pike in touch with his late son. I previously hadn't taken Ford seriously due to the controversy surrounding the Houdini episode and some of the other anti-Ford propaganda, but this book led me to do additional digging. Ford clearly seems to have had a great deal of genuine mediumistic ability (whatever that may be). He was also a complex individual who would make an interesting study even if he had been a complete fraud. I would recommend this as an excellent introduction to Ford (or a good summing up as to what he was all about, if you are already familiar with him).

Ever had one of those days where everything went wrong? For Larry Munro, a day to pick up his pal, Concrete, blew up (literally!) at the gas station. An innocent flirt with a girl leads to trouble as the girl's boyfriend just happened to rob the gas station and ready to runaway. Guest who the gotta be the driver? Will this change his life forever?

This collection is one of the best comicbook that takes on real life situations without letting the superheroes element disturb your attention. A nicely executed story and the ending will ask you a provoking question about the event in the book. What would you do if it actually happen to you?

Former Nam grunt, American Neal Morley, operates out of London for the shrouded government agency, the Bureau. His superiors send Neal on assignment to Brussels, a city where he busted up an international drug ring at a high cost to his own health. He is to interview a puppeteer, Serge Cailleau, who earns a living smuggling refugees into Belgium. Serge believes that his latest party is actually terrorists planning an assault on the participants of an upcoming European Union meeting.

However, during a performance, someone kills Serge. With little to go on, Neal begins to make inquiries. However, he also uses his time to finish up his mess from last year since the head of the drug ring was never busted. Neal realizes he is not quite the superman he felt he was before the drug ring case, but worse yet, his own agency has little confidence in the agent anymore.

DEATH OF A MARIONETTE is the paperback version of a fabulous espionage thriller released in the middle nineties. The story line retains its crispness even though the EU has moved way beyond that of the novel. Neal is a fantastic character who provides insight into the psyche of the Viet Nam vet, which in turn explains why he needs to stay in the "cold." The support cast adds drama and tension as the audience wonders what each one has up their sleeve and if that individual will betray the hero. Frank M. Robinson and Paul Hull provides sub-genre fans with a triumphant thriller.

Harriet Klausner

I find this book very effective in explaining the psychology of depression and integrating a Christian viewpoint. It offers hope to the depressed and eliminates hatred. Instead of resenting others for their authoritarian personality or explosive rage, we learn to realize that the person most likely has had a rocky childhood. "Happiness is a Choice" explains the causes of all depressive personalities and allows these people hope to solve their problems.

When I was told to purchase this book, I thought 'Happiness is a Choice' ... yeah right, like I CHOOSE to be depressed, I don't think soooo! I didn't think the book would be worth while at all. In fact, I thought it might try to brainwash or something. But that is not how it works. It gives you insight into depression. It gave me so much to think about. It gave me CONTROL over my depression for the first time. It didn't happen overnight, in fact it didn't happen until about a month after I finished reading the book. But the concepts put forth in this book were so profound, that I was able to say NO to depression for the first time, and after many many years of therapy and medication.

I have been suffering from depression and anxiety for many years and am on medication. This book has helped me understand some of the aspects of what triggers anxiety and the choice I can make to control my responses. A person of faith will highly regard this book. The applications can be useful for every day stress that causes anxiety and mild depresseion that everyone is subject to.

This is perhaps the worst New X-Men TPB of the lot, possibly because the stories in collection are rather slow-paced, and littered with poor artwork from Igor Kordey. I don't know why he has to draw everyone with wrinkles all over - Xavier, Emma Frost, Jean Grey... none escaped. Nevertheless the standard set by New X-Men is maintained. It's also nice to see cameos from X-Men who are not the main characters this series, like Archangel, Storm, etc. Also included appearances from younger X-Men like Siryn, Multipe Man, etc. Overall an acceptable read. Get it to complete your collection.

Grant Morrison's writing in this book is up to his usual great standards but, this time out the inconsistant art really hurt's the overall enjoyment. As many know, Frank Quitely, the book's "regular artist" can't keep a deadline to save his life, so we have Ethan Van Sciver as his back-up, Sciver, while having a style that dosen't really mesh with Quitely's still look's good on the X-Men and during the issues in this book, he really started to come into his own. Then, he start's having trouble keeping up, so Marvel does the worst move they have done in recent year's by bringing Igor Kordey in to become the book's main artist. Kordeys art is just plain ugly. Totally clashes with Morrison's style of writing and Kordey draws a couple of the pivotal issues of this storyline killing the flow of the story. Still, through all the ups and downs of the art, you still have Morrison's awsome writing injecting these characters with excitement and life for the first time in many years, however watered down it is.

Well first off i have to say New X-men is the reason I love comic books. It has amazing storytelling, amazing artwork, and amazing characters. Grant Morrison never, ever fails to amaze me. His storytelling is definitely one of the best in comics (along with Jeph Loeb and Kevin Smith). He just has such vision and depth and thats one of the main reasons this comic book is an awesome read. Then the artwork, I think Quietly's, van Sciever's, and Kordey's work are all top notch and if they got any better it would be sickening. I've always liked Quietly's artwork since the first time i saw it. Ethan van Sciever's art work is also great. The way he makes Beast look is awesome. As for Kordey I really don't know what some people are complaining about, I think his art work is really cool. Now I know everyone has their own opinions and i just think some people want to complain about the smallest thing. Here's a little piece of advice. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT. Picasso was different from da Vinci but just because he was different didn't mean he was a bad artist and just because Kordey's is a little different doesn't mean he is a bad artist. So what i'm trying to say is I liked Kordey's, Quietly's, and van Sciever's artwork the same and for anyone who hasn't read these books, I suggest you do. You will not be let down

This is a great book! Not for novices in C++, but if you already know the fundamentals of the language, this book will be great to learn data structures. Excellent book, indeed.

If you want to learn about data structures, then get this book; you won't find a better one. But you'll need a good grip on the C++ language to take full advantage of this book. Don't make the mistake of thinking that this book will also teach you C++. The book is written to teach you data structures; and hopefully you'll pickup some good design habits along the way.

The materials in this book are very well organized and easy to understand; Enough for most programmers.

The reviewer below misses the point. This book was the first anthology of Asian American writers to come out of the period of the founding of Ethnic Studies. It focuses soley on works by Japanese, Chinese and Pilipino Americans and features the usual suspects, Frank Chin, Carlos Bulosan, etc. It does not inlcude works by Vietnamese or Thai Americans because there was next to no immigration or even refugees from those countries immigrating pre 1965. Get your facts straight and review the text in its historical context and you will find that this text is a valuable source to capture the many dilemmas that Asian American's faced in forging an identity of their own.

You guys should make an effort to buy this book (if it's still around). In it, the editors expose "Asian American" authors who thought it best to represent Asian Americans by making them love "white America" in spite of their own Asian culture! For instance, Pardee Lowe has an aversion toward the tong his father is in; and in order to keep him from these "heathen chinese" he helps convert his father into Christianity (this nation's prevalent religion). You will also learn how subtle racist figures like Charlie Chan represent what whites perceive as Asianness. Bear in mind, the editors are not segregating the term Asian to mean just Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. Rather, they are merely using Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino literature to convey (this is a part of their argument) that these different subgroups (and then some) within Asia America were not (and are not) assimilated (they did not hate their own culture to show their patriotism toward America). They open their book with "Asian Americans are not one people but several - Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans." They are not saying "Asian Americans are not one people but only three..." And, yes, I've met Asian Americans who are just as biased as white people, but this isn't the case that the editors are making (nor are they this way). Really, all they are doing is challenging the subtle racist stereotypical view whites have of Asians (which is a prevalent view). Some of you may not know what a stereotype of an Asian person is! Why not find out how REAL Asians are by reading this masterpiece.

You guys should make an effort to buy this book (if it's still around). In it, the editors expose "Asian American" authors who thought it best to represent Asian Americans by making them love "white America" in spite of their own Asian culture! For instance, Pardee Lowe has an aversion toward the tong his father is in; and in order to keep him from these "heathen Chinese" he helps convert his father into Christianity (this nation's prevalent religion). You will also learn how subtle racist figures like Charlie Chan represent what whites perceive as Asianness. Bear in mind, the editors are not segregating the term Asian to mean just Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino. Rather, they are merely using Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino literature to convey (this is a part of their argument) that these different subgroups (and then some) within Asia America were not (and are not) assimilated (they did not hate their own culture to show their patriotism toward America). They open their book with "Asian Americans are not one people but several - Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, and Filipino Americans." They are not saying "Asian Americans are not one people but only three..." And, yes, I've met Asian Americans who are just as biased as white people, but this isn't the case that the editors are making (nor are they this way). Really, all they are doing is challenging the subtle racist stereotypical view whites have of Asians (which is a prevalent view). Some of you may not know what a stereotype of an Asian person is! Why not find out how REAL Asians are by reading this masterpiece.