The memoirs of basic der Flieger a.D. Alfred Mahncke are the 1st from a former common of the German Luftwaffe to be released within the English language considering that these of Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring in 1953. in view that then, hundreds of thousands of books were written on each point of the Luftwaffe’s heritage, improvement, personalities, airplane, campaigns, operations and supreme defeat. however the historiography has lacked a clean, precise and private perception into the management and command of the Luftwaffe from its earliest years via to the interval of obstacle which ensued after the tragedy of Stalingrad. Alfred Mahncke’s For Kaiser and Hitler rectifies this omission, supplying people with an curiosity within the heritage of the German army desktop with an soaking up, specified, hugely readable and evocative account of lifestyles in the Luftwaffe at senior command level.Yet Mahncke’s account is far greater than that – for as he states, his is a narrative spanning ‘…the nationwide autocracy of the Monarchy and the unsuccessful parliamentary democracy of the Weimar Republic, to the failed nationwide Socialist dictatorship.’ it's also a chronicle of the very beginnings of army aviation. Mahncke was once one of the first German army aviators and flew with the Kaiser’s fledgling air unit in 1911, witnessing and experiencing the pleasure – and hazards – of flying in a number of the earliest army planes. He met the Kaiser, the German Crown Prince and diverse contributors of the Imperial royal relations, in addition to Hindenburg and plenty of favorite German political and armed forces figures. He flew in an early Zeppelin airship. by means of the outbreak of the 1st global struggle, Mahncke used to be an skilled pilot and he flew in this case over the Western and japanese Fronts, sooner than assuming employees positions in France and Russia the place he managed tactical air operations. He went on a dive in a German U-boat in 1915 and later traveled to Palestine. He additionally suffered, and describes in hugely photograph and emotional phrases, the carnage and horror of the ditch battle at the Western entrance in 1917.In the ‘dark years’ of the interwar interval following within the wake of the Versailles Treaty, Mahncke served in senior positions with the army police and his writing bargains a beneficial perception into existence within the Weimar Republic and of the uncomfortable upward thrust of nationwide Socialism and Adolf Hitler – whom he first met in 1933 – from the point of view of the German conservative heart sessions and the army. He met Charles Lindbergh and attended the debatable 1936 Olympic video games in Berlin in addition to the Nuremberg rallies the place he shared a podium with the Führer.In 1935, he joined the fledgling Luftwaffe, experiencing – from his place as overseer and champion of air game within the 3rd Reich – at firsthand the politics, personalities and measures of stealth used to rebuild German air strength below Nazi regulate. He witnessed, and describes vividly, the emergence of an grand – yet no longer perfect – new strength in aviation and its eventual deployment in Hitler’s invasion of Russia in June 1941, culminating within the force into the Caucasus and Crimea and the development at the Volga. Mahncke used to be deeply desirous about Luftwaffe operations at Stalingrad and later within the Kuban in 1943, earlier than relocating to Italy, the place he coordinated the determined German air protection of Sicily prior to the sluggish, tenacious safeguard and supreme retreat during the Italian mainland all through 1943 and 1944.Mahncke met and labored with Göring, Udet, Milch, Kesselring, Jeschonnek, von Richthofen and plenty of different senior commanders of the Luftwaffe and German defense force. He describes their strengths and weaknesses, in addition to their imaginative and prescient – or loss of it.For Kaiser and Hitler is unapologetic, sincere, readable and interesting. It offers an exciting perception for people with an curiosity within the air strength and army background of the 1st international struggle and the 3rd Reich and varieties an enormous source for scholarship.Translator Jochen O.E.O. (Jo...