Common Quality

THE LUFTWAFFE--Hauptmann Hermann--Putnam ($3).

WINGS OF DESTINY--The Marquess of Londonderry--Macmillan ($3.50).

The Nazis did not build up German aviation from scratch. When Hitler took over, there was a well-balanced civil aviation system, 65 national and international lines, training facilities better than those of any other country, eight German engine works, and an industry which in 1933 could turn out 600 planes a year.

Who built its foundations? Says "Hauptmann Hermann," once Hugo Junkers' employe and friend, now a refugee who writes under a pseudonym: Junkers and the technical genius of Ernst Heinkel. A year after the Armistice, a small group of aviation enthusiasts was meeting for glider contests in the little mountain village of Gersfeld. The army became interested. In an atmosphere akin to that of an old-fashioned detective story, planes and aircraft factories were secretly built under the eyes of the Inter-Allied Control Commission. Planes were hidden in nearby meadows when inspectors came through the factories. When the Allied Commission departed in 1926, Germany had the nucleus of a powerful military air force.

Germany also had trained men. Lord Londonderry, who was Britain's Air Minister in the years when the Luftwaffe was being built, says that the Nazi pilots never lost confidence during the blitz: "When for the first time they witnessed their comrades spinning to the earth or sea in flames, their morale, which more nearly approached fanaticism than anything never faltered, and they flew blindly on even when the Luftwaffe was losing 70 to 100 and 150 aircraft a day. Even when beaten, the German pilots still thought invasion merely postponed to 1941."

Neither Wings of Destiny nor The Luftwaffe is detailed enough to give readers a clear notion of how the R.A.F. and the German Air Force will compare in the coming battle for Europe. Hauptmann Hermann's book contains sketches of early Nazi airmen, ancient history on how the first building of the Luftwaffe was accomplished in spite of the Reichstag, the liberals, the socialists, the communists and the League of Nations.

Wings of Destiny is a different problem. Lord Londonderry's defense of his ministry is a long, repetitious record, some of which is given over to Londonderry's answer to charges that he was pro-Nazi. Some of his points: British Intelligence knew the strength and weakness of the German Air Force when it was being built. British Cabinet members openly, jocosely showed their lack of interest in the air force. Public opinion was hostile to rearmament of any kind. Sir Samuel Hoare, though he made some constructive suggestions, never got out on a limb that might lose the Government votes. Churchill was an ardent supporter of the R.A.F. but not always well informed on German air rearmament. When presented with an awkward question, Ramsay MacDonald, as Prime Minister, explained that he could do nothing about air, and sent Londonderry to Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain was interested only in finance. Sir John Simon thought the air force a nuisance. When asked about the R.A.F., Stanley Baldwin replied with talk about cricket, rowing or books. Those years were a period of despondency for Lord Londonderry. Says he: "There was nothing I could do at the time [in 1936, when he was no longer Air Minister] so I went to Sutherland for some fishing."

The record of much of Wings of Destiny would be appalling if it were not for the fact that Londonderry's candor in speaking out about his own work, the attitude of his colleagues and the painful years of unpreparedness shows a courage that, in its different sphere, is like the courage of the airborne fighters.

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