The full story of the air forces allied to Germany during the Second World War and the foreign flying personnel of the Luftwaffe has had to wait until now, and not without reason. Only after the fall of the 'Iron Curtain' could the historians of Eastern Europe explore this subject without ideological barriers, and the survivors of the conflict in former communist countries, such as Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia, talk freely about their past.


During the Second World War, the Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovak, Finnish
and Vichy-French air forces played a much greater role than has hitherto been acknowledged by
historians. In fact, for a time, no less than one quarter of the aircraft operational on the Eastern Front
were flown by aircrews of countries allied to Germany, or foreign pilots in the service of the Luftwaffe


Initially, these foreign forces were viewed sceptically in Berlin. This attitude was to change during the
war when, to replace the mounting losses of men and materiel, the Luftwaffe had to rely increasingly
on the small air forces of its allies Germany, at first hesitant when it came to supplying aircraft to
foreign air forces, was soon induced to supply the most modern equipment so that their allies would
be in a position to establish at least a modest aerial umbrella over their homelands and industrial centres. It was thanks to this modernization and strengthening that, despite inadequate training and shortages of aviation fuel, the Finns, Hungarians and Italians developed fighter units that by 1944 were comparable with the flying elite of any nation.

In this book, Hans Werner Neulen presents the hitherto largely untold story of the air forces of eight
countries and the various foreign airmen (including Russian) who fought with the Luftwaffe: their
operations, mostly carried out in conditions of numerical inferiority, their successes and failures, as well as the motivation of these aircrew and their often tragic fate.

Born in 1948, Hans Werner Neulen is a lawyer and historian. In addition to numerous articles and
contributions to books on general history and military history, he has written several books on the subject of the Third Reich and the Second World War.