German Aces of the Russian Front

by John Weal

Release Date: September, 2002

Edition: Paperback

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Visually appealing, and more !

This book is a keeper. From cover to cover, this is a very well laid-out and illustrated book. This a book you can just skim through and enjoy, looking at the first-class photos or immaculate color plates. Or you can decide to read the picture captions, which are pertinent, well-written, and above all interesting. To top it all off, John Weal excels both as a historian and as a writer, so the book, fact-filled as it is, is quite an enjoyable read.

However, this book is actually a combination of 2 previous titles from Osprey, so the narratives are witten in two different perspectives. The first part of the book covers Bf-109 aces, and here Weal is primarily converned with scoring and award histories of the top 109-aces. Unit histories and the course of the (Eastern Front) war are also described, but they play a background role here. Combat tactics and first-hand accounts of the aces are for the most part not covered here. The second part of the book deals with Fw-190 aces, and here we find a more even distribution of the above-mentioned areas. I enjoyed the Fw-190 section more than the Bf-109 section, since I am more interested in finding out about how it was to fly on the Eastern Front and how the German aircraft against their Russian counterparts than when a given ace received his Knight's Cross.

At the back, you'll find a number of tables, such as a table of Eastern Front fighter units, what they were equipped with and where they operated from, and when. Also an ace table, as expected. The index is good, with references to color plates distinguished from text references by heavier type. Color plate quality and accompanying narratives are excellent.