The first operational military jet in the world, towards the end of the Second World War the ME 262 was to be the German miracle weapon.

Mano Ziegler was involved from its inception and contributed to the design, testing, training and even served in it operationally.

Could the ME 262 have broken the Allied supremacy in the air? Why did it take so long to come into service and why were hundreds of German pilots sacrificed in developing it? Why did the ME 262 prove not to be the unparalleled success claimed by Goering and why were German cities left dangerously exposed against Allied bombing campaigns?

These are only some the important questions this new book answers.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• About the Author
• Author’s Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 - Fritz Wendel – A Test Pilot Possessed
• 2 - Messerschmitt AG Developments 1926 – 41
• 3 - Shortages, Technical Difficulties and the First Me 262 Crash
• 4 - A Fatal Crash and Hitler’s Fatal Decision
• 5 - The Me 262 as Bomber The Crucial Lost Year
• 6 - ‘Mein Führer, every child can see that that is a fighter and not a bomber!’
• 7 - Kommando Nowotny – The Sop to Galland
• 8 - Clashes over the Western Front Late 1944
• 9 - The Loss of Nowotny
• 10 - Rudi Sinner and III/JG7 – Best of All German Jet-fifghter Units
• 11 - III/JG7 – The Last Great Air-battle over the Reich
• 12 - Last Gestures of Defiance
• 13 - Kurt Welter – The Most Successful of the Me 262 Aces?
• 14 - A Last Flight to Cherbourg
• 15 - Fritz Wendel’s Closing Report, 1945
• Notes
• Selected Sources
• Index