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Osprey
Norman Franks & Greg Van Wyngarden
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This is the latest of a series of volumes looking
at the experiences and achievements of “ace”
fighter pilots and a companion to earlier volumes concerning Nieuport, Sopworth
and Fokker “aces”.
This is a book that like its earlier
versions will appeal to the aviation modeller with basic 1/32nd scale drawings,
which certainly give a feeling to the small size of this aircraft, which so
affected the Allies that they specified its handover in the Treaty of
Versailles. The centre pages are as usual given over to full colour plates of
the aircraft with some gaudy examples that will avoid the need to try to
replicate the lozenge camouflage adopted by German aircraft in the latter stages
of the conflict.
The text apart from a short section concerning the
BMW and Mercedes engines concerns the pilots and their actions with this
aircraft, any person looking for technical details would be advised to seek
alternative sources.
The main formations that flew this aircraft
appear to be dealt with in numerical order with first hand accounts and
thumbnail histories of the pilots involved. Reading these accounts three things
struck the reader, the first being the short operational life of aircraft
involved in the air war, together with the incredibly short gestation period of
new types compared with modern types. The second is the predominance of the
German aristocracy in their air arm and the third the use of parachutes by the
German air arm, all of which are out of the scope of the book.
The text can become repetitive, as one gets
further into the book. Without wishing to appear disrespectful to those involved
in this or any other conflict this repetition can be boring. The snap shots of
the participants are presented in such a way that it is hard to put into the
context of the wider war, although this no doubt is how they felt.
On the whole this is a book for the modeller
and would have benefited from a bibliography and list of sources.
Paperback; 96 pages; ISBN:
1841765333; £12.99
Iain
Johnstone
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