Blood of the Eagle: A Novel of the German Luftwaffe

It is 1941 and the Luftwaffe rules the skies over Europe. Werner Wissemann, son of Willi Wissemann ＂The Black Eagle of Bavaria,＂ wages war on the enemies of Nazi Germany from the cockpit of his Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter, scoring kills against the RAF in JG-26 and then in JG-27 against the Red Air Force in Russia. Once in North Africa, he begins to assert his prowess over his Commonwealth opponents, running up a prodigious tally, fast approaching his father’s Great War record of 33 victories. But all is not well in his world. Young Werner is relentlessly pursued by Gestapo Agent Bruno Keppler, a persistent and ruthless man with an old score to settle. Keppler believes Werner Wissemann is a murderer, killing a fellow Gestapo agent and a French prostitute, one cold December night in Paris. What follows is an ongoing chase that leads to Keppler to Berlin, North Africa, then Rome, then to Paris again, as he pursues the young Luftwaffe officer across Europe, determined to bring him to justice no matter what.Willi Wissemann, now a middle-aged married man and director of a successful aircraft manufacturing company, balances a career beset with one challenge after another. After a two year stint as Kommandant of a fighter pilot school, he resumes his career and begins work on a ＂secret＂ project for the Reich Air Ministry-a rocket-powered pilotless plane. What follows are whirlwind episodes of failed test flights, petty jealousies, epiphany, espionage, revenge, and a climatic court hearing in Berlin. In the end, Willi must choose between serving the Fatherland faithfully or saving his wife from a life threatening disease. All this, while World War II rages completely out of control.

The final episode of the ＂Eagle and the Albatros＂ and ＂Only the Eagle Dares＂ air combat series,

DEKE D. WAGNER was born in Mississippi and raised in Georgia. The son of an American Air Force sergeant and a German mother from Hesse-Darmstadt, Deke grew up having a keen interest in aviation and his German heritage. At the age of ten, he read Manfred von Richthofen’s autobiography, Der Rote Kampfflieger (The Red Air Fighter) and has ever since been enthralled with tales of air aces and air combat. After high school and a stint in the Army Reserve, Deke attended art school but made little progress. He spent the next two decades pursuing a semi-professional musical career as a singer/songwriter before attempting his first novel-The Eagle and the Albatros. Deke also enjoys playing guitar and recording original music. He currently resides in Augusta, Georgia. Blood of the Eagle is his sixth novel.