Chris Goss, Operation Steinbock 1944 (Osprey, 2025)
For those who thought the Luftwaffe Blitz on Britain in 1940 was their only attempt to diminish British morale at home, think again. At the beginning of 1944, Germany’s warplanes again flew through British skies in a major offensive, attempting to punish the British and make them cower in fear. All they achieved, however, was to demonstrate Germany’s growing weakness and waste more lives. Chris Goss tells that story.
Goss begins in December 1943, with German plans for reprisals against the British through a bombing campaign. But they did not have the necessary aircraft until January 1944. Goss considers the capabilities of the six types of aircraft that would launch the operation in various roles: the obsolete Do 217, the Ju 88, Ju 188, He 177, Fw 190, and the Me 410. The total number of serviceable craft was 462, but none of them promised success. Surveying the defender’s capabilities, Goss highlights the problems facing the German pilots, with radar detection and a significant anti-aircraft net, not to mention the many squadrons of RAF nightfighters. London was the favoured target for the Luftwaffe with a number of port towns included to disrupt any Allied invasion plans. The first wave of a two-phased assault, the biggest since May 1941, took place on 21 January 1944. It was partially successful, in that bombs caused casualties and disruption, but at a high cost in machines and aircrew. More attacks followed, again with considerable losses and little effect on the targets, though there were enough casualties to remind England of the blitz though not the devastating scale of the previous campaign. The final attack on London came on 24 February 1944. On 19 March, the Luftwaffe switched to other parts of England but fared no better over the ensuing weeks. The diminishing number of crews and aircraft made operations harder for the Germans, but they persevered into April and May, with the last futile attack on Falmouth on 29 May. Some sporadic attacks followed, but Operation Steinbock was finally curtailed by the D-Day landings. Goss notes in his analysis that one German historian labelled Operation Steinbock as ‘pathetic’, but the Luftwaffe had caused many casualties and some disruption. The loss of pilots and machines and diminishing morale impeded the Luftwaffe, and British defences proved too much for them. The Germans also had issues with pathfinding and navigation, and even the weather was against them. Goss concludes that the operation was a failure.
Chris Goss tells an engrossing, albeit brief, story that draws the reader in from the first paragraph. The narrative that unfolds along with Goss’s survey of the two sides is filled with enough detail to make a student of World War II aerial combat want to read more. Goss’s use of gripping first-hand accounts from the various combats is neatly weaved into his narrative, a writing skill that is not as easy as it seems. Operation Steinbock was undoubtedly a Luftwaffe failure, a last throw of the dice, but Goss’s account of it is a success.
