Luftwaffe The Second World War in Colour

This superb collection of wartime colour photographs brings the Luftwaffe – its aircraft and personnel – to life in a dramatically vivid way.

Colour photography was still a rare thing in the 1930s and 1940s. Various systems had been tried, but it was the Germans who had the greatest success with their Agfacolor process. This meant that colour images could be produced with basic darkroom equipment, even close to the action. As a result the members of the Propaganda Kompanie, armed with Leica cameras and the new Agfacolor film, were able to capture aspects of the Luftwaffe’s operations in a way never seen before. The resulting pictures were published in a number of magazines, including the Luftwaffe’s Der Adler, as well as in books aimed at the home front audience.

John Christopher has compiled this fascinating selection of wartime images of the Luftwaffe in colour.