Since I began working on this book I have often been asked why I was writing a book on the Second World War. Well, a great deal has been written and said on the subject, but not much of it can give the post-war generation a clear idea of what the war was like.

There is a good reason why my first book should be about the Luftwaffe - I was always keen on flying. I obtained my A and B gliding certificates when I was 14, and the C certificate a year later. The end of the war saw to it that I got no further than gliding, so I took up an earthbound trade and became a photographer. It was twenty years before I had anything more to do with aviation. The material for this book was available at my place iii work. In the Federal Republic's largest archives, where I had worked as head of the photographic department for ten years, lay what had been saved of the negatives taken by German war correspondents during the Second World War. Writers of many nations come here to seek out photographs, and there are almost two million negatives in the collection.

In starting work on this project, my most important tool was a good magnifying glass. I looked out for rare shots. As the pictures appeared before me in the darkroom, I tried to imagine what the photographer had experienced at the time. I selected photos that showed people jubilant in victory, crushed and sorrowful in defeat, and pictures that testify to the qualities and power of aircraft, the beauty of landscapes and the cruelty of war. I have written a short historical introduction to each section. For those who lived through it, these will serve as a bridge into the past; they may help the younger generation to understand the photographs better.

Werner Held