Definitive books on Eastern Front air war

[Moggy]

When summarising the contributions of the major allies to the second world war, Stalin declared that "the British gave time, the Americans gave money, and the Russians gave blood". This is of course a generalisation; all the allied contributors gave considerable amounts of blood and treasure as a contribution to final victory. Britain was certainly effectively bankrupt by 1942 having liquidated virtually all of its foreign holdings to pay - cash & carry - for war material prior to the advent of lend-lease. The American willingness to accept casualties was shown graphically in the Pacific, at Omaha Beach, and later in many other bloody battles in Normandy. However, the essence of the generalisation is true; without the engagement of the vast and growing resources of the American economy, there could have been no victory. However, what the West frequently forgets is that without the vast and bloody battles on the endless Russian steppe, the German military machine would not have been first checked, and then ground relentlessly down.

Because of this, at least until fairly recently there has been much less published material in English concerning the Eastern front, and very little on the air war there.

A terrific exception are Christer Bergstroms multi-volume set Black Cross - Red Star.



These definitive volumes, five at the moment, take the story from Barbarossa to Kursk, with more to come. First published over 20 years ago, the author is currently producing a second edition set which are virtually new volumes:

"The Black Cross/Red Star book series is the only documentation of the true air battle on the Eastern Front during World War II, based on a wealth of primary sources from both sides as well as interviews with a large number of veterans from both sides. The new Volume 2 has just been published. The new Volume 3 will be published next year, and then a new volume (6, 7 & 8 ) will follow each year. The whole series will be completed, and the history of the air war on the Eastern Front will have gone from rather unknown to one of the best documented phases in the history of air war."

You can read a sample from vol 2 here: https://vaktelforlag.se/wp-content/uplo ... xtract.pdf

You can order the books direct from the author here: https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt-kategori/english/

[Moggy]

I'd also recomend this author's 2015 volume on the Battle of Britain, for its careful analysis of all the new sources, and its questioning of some of the myths such as the alleged bad generalship of Goering and whether the Bf 110 was as useless as often claimed.

[rotton50]

I love puncturing "common knowledge".

Here's one for you.

Turns out the engines were probably not the reason for the Whirlwind's disappointing wartime record. The Peregrine being the last iteration of the tried and true Kestrel.

It's more likely the problem was the propellers. The prototype with the eye opening performance used Rotol propellers while the production models switched to Havilland/Hamilton propellers which were much thicker in cross section. The thicker blades caused the air passing over the surface of the prop to go to critical mach which put a huge stress on the engines.

It's a short read - https://www.historynet.com/it-wasnt-the ... at-was-it/

[Moggy]

Fascinating story about the Whirlwind. I remember having an airfix model of it yonks ago. Always thought it looked great.

So many potentially very good planes passed over. Can I say Martin-Baker?

[rotton50]

They ARE all available in the 1-6 inventory.