このシリーズで現在俎上に載せているウィルモット『大いなる聖戦・第二次世界大戦全史』の原著については、前回の終りの方で、誤りが多いことを指摘しておいた。
今回は、そのような誤りに関してである。
引き続き見出しの英訳についてだが、今回はこれまでと若干質問態様を変える。
まず、異なった二つの節からいくつか文節を抜粋して提示する。文脈としては、第二次大戦中の東部戦線での1942年の戦いが始まる直前の情勢を記したものであり、いずれの場合にも各節でキーとなる文章を選んだ：
Ａ群
. . . probably the more significant weakness was that of the Luftwaffe because of the critical importance that air power held in German war-making. In the course of 1941 the Luftwaffe destroyed perhaps as many as 7,000 Soviet combat aircraft, yet the year ended without it being able to exercise air superiority over much of the Eastern Front.
in 1942 the Luftwaffe did not have the capacity for sustained operations in so vast a theatre as the east and was in any event not the type of air force Germany needed at this time.
In 1942 the Luftwaffe still retained certain advantages over its Soviet counterpart, most notably better pilots, control and maintenance, but these advantages were small and declining, while the demands of the north-west Europe and Mediterranean theatres made increasingly serious inroads into its strength.
（注：Luftwaffeは「ドイツ空軍」のこと）
Ｂ群
The German ground forces entered the summer campaign in 1942 with similar problems and for similar reasons. Like the Luftwaffe the ground forces found in the spring of 1942 extra responsibilities in France and the Low Countries . . .
The Wehrmacht lost half of its 500,000 horses in the course of 1941, and while it entered the 1942 summer campaign with about the same number of divisions (179) as it had when it had begun the invasion of the Soviet Union one year earlier, these divisions were 625,000 men under establishment.
Postings and promotions thus came directly within Hitler’s patronage, and he used this power to corrupt some to his will, to favour the ardent and the flatterers, and, in September 1942, to undermine the whole principle of hierarchy within the army by the appointment of a major general as its chief of staff.
（注：Wehrmachtは字義通りなら「（ドイツ）国防軍」だが、ここでは「（ドイツ）陸軍」を指す）
次に、二つの見出しを掲げる：
（Ⅰ）State of the German Military Forces
（Ⅱ）State of the Luftwaffe
いつもと違って、今回は明確な解答がある質問である：
いずれがＡ、Ｂ群の見出しであろうか？