From its secret post-World War I beginnings to its virtual destruction by the Allied air forces, the story of the German air force is best told by examining its leaders - brilliant, ambitious, ruthless, and deceitful men like Hermann Goering, the drug-addicted Luftwaffe commander; Erhard Milch, the half-Jewish head of aircraft production; and Adolf Galland, the general of fighters who often clashed with Goering. Mitcham profiles them and others while describing the Luftwaffe’s battles - both in the skies and behind the scenes - and explaining why it was so decisively defeated.