Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Gentlemen,

my Hungarian book about the aces of the RHAF in WW II has been released a month ago. It is a heavily upgraded version of the 2006 edition (A/4 size hardcover book with 402 numbered pages, incl. 722 endnotes). The text contains the very detailed military biography of every aces (not just the fighters, but assault, bomber and recce aces too). The book contains 350 illustrations (not just photos, incl. a number of colour ones, but drawings and important document scans too). It also contains several colour profiles.

The 2006 edition lacked the English version - in this case there will be an English edition for sure (but I don't know when, it depends always on the publisher).

Some additional info available here (not just about this book, but about my other academic works too):
https://www.facebook.com/B-Stenge-Cs...5972450531930/

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

congrats, mr. Stenge
the last work of yours "Baptism of Fire" gave me detailed accounts of a less-known conflict, so just hope the english version of your new book could get out asap ))

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Hi Csaba!
Never got any response for your questions... A pity I could not help you.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

stukapilot,

thank you. You will find in the book very detailed military biographies, the most detailed available info on the Hungarian ace kills (including their possible or directly identified opponents), important additional info on unit histories and many extra details on their German brother in arms and Soviet and US opponents too.

Sergio,

thank you, never mind.
For the ones, who does not know, what we are talking about - a Hungarian ace (whose family died out) passed away in a São Paulo suburb and despite of my frantic efforts, I was not able to clear his very exact passing date (at the end of the '80's), mostly because the lack of any will to help by the local authorities. Sergio also tried to help me, but he was also unsuccessful.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Csaba,

Where can one purchase this revised edition? Even/especially if one does not read Hungarian? I eagerly await the English language edition as well. I hope the publisher will bring it out soon,.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Frank,

your complimentary copy is on the way to you (I shipped it last week - I hope you will receive it soon).

Making the English edition is definitely time consuming, since the length of the text (I am more busy than ever, so a translator needed). I don't have a signed contract yet, just an agreement with a publisher (who has a good, solid Hungarian-English military translator, which is a rare breed). But I don't know the timetable of the publisher and the translator, so I have no approximate release date of the English edition yet.


I have few copies for foreigners, who are interested in the Hungarian edition (due to its size and weight, which is around 1,8 kgs, shipping can be costly and many Hungarian distributors do not ship abroad)

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Csaba

Out of interest, how many victories were claimed by the Hungarians during WW 2?
After a quick glance it seems the aces claimed appx 312 victories (take or give a few depending on how one counts). It would be interesting to know how that amount corelate to the total.

Also what makes your book (English version) different with regard to the fighter pilots than the one written by György Punka some 14 years ago? I understand you have expanded the topic 'ace' and no doubt the number of photos as well.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

The 38 Hungarian aces of WWII scored over 370 air victories. Everything (including statistics) are described in deep detail in the book.

As for the Osprey book, these projects are uncomparable. Punka's Osprey book is actually another edition of his 'Messer', under a new title (the text is approximately the same). That book contains no info about the aces, their military and civilian careers and many important questions. That follows general time and few units and shows general combat. It also contains high number of serious errors related to individuals, dates and events.

My book contains the very detailed military career all of the aces. Since 99,8% of the RHAF's wartime material was lost, it was not a small challenge and a result of a 23 year-long extremely intensive and careful research, during which I left no stones unturned related to these pilots.

It contains several chapters prior the ace biographies about general statistics and fates of them, about the RHAF air victories during WWII in general, about the air victory concept in Hungary itself, about the confirmation system in Hungary (compared to others), about the tactic and combat methods in air combat, about the awards, and there is a rank comparison table (Hungarian/German/Soviet/USA). After that, the very detailed bio of all 38 aces, including their combat performanace, flight hours, awards (with exact dates), air victories (with very exact details), with flown aircraft as an introductory. Then comes the very detailed military biography of the actual pilot (basic details from the family, the cause, why the choose the military flying if it is known), training, service at home and at the front units with the very details of his combats (including many named opponents, so details about their victims and victors as well). Very details of their death (if they died), and if survived the war, their military/aviation related fate after 1945 etc etc etc. The most successful ace's bio (Dezső Szentgyörgyi) is 22 page-long, but the shortest one is still 5 page-long. And of course it is a serious academic work (with 722 endnotes).

But if you seriously think, that an A/4 size, 402 page-long book contains no more info compared to a B/5 size, 96 page-long one, you should ask a more mathematical related individual about these dimensions, not me.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

It seems my friend that you are "hunting" another PhD...:)
Congratulations!

Aleks

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Thanks Csaba

Interesting answer.
Looks like Punka has missed out a couple of aces in 'his' book.

Is the figure of total claims by Hungarians among the 99.8% details which is lost? It would also have been interesting to see a list of all claimed victories by Hungarians during WW 2....

Hopefully you will give us a hint when the English edition gets published.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Thanks, Aleks (no, I'm not looking for another PhD of History, since I already have one from 10 years ago).

Stig,

my book contains all aces: 34 fighter pilots, plus four others (one former Ju 87, then Fw 190 ground assault pilot, one Ju 88 pilot who scored 5 kills with his crew and two long range reconnaissance pilots, who scored 5 and 8 kills with their crews, respectively)

Due to the extremely high loss percentage of the official documents it is impossible to tell very exact figures of overall claims statistics of the RHAF, since many squadron's documentation is completely lost.

It is a lifelong project to me to try to restore as many details related to the RHAF as possible (for example via collecting individual logbooks from veterans and families all around the world but via many other sources too).

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

i bought the second-hand 2 volume set "Légi Háború Magyarország Felett" from budapest many years ago and gained brief account of operational histories of RHAF by the help of google translator, but the translation was rough as u know. and hikoki also published a book named "Hungarian Eagles. The Hungarian Air Forces 1920-1945" by Punka Sárhidai and Punka György, which i guess it's the abridged edition translated from the origianl "A Magyar Királyi Honvéd Légierő 1920-1945" by the same authors, but 64 pages contents r far from what i want to know. so mr. Stenge, what also concerns me most is if u have any plans to write a complete combat history of RHAF in ww2, or the best-known 101st fighter wing, in english of course ))

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Thanks Csaba

I was afraid that would be the case.
Well, you have been convincing enough for me to want the book, but it is unfortunately useless in Hungarian for me, so with an English edition in the pipeline, you got another customer... :)

Cheers
Stig

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Sincere congratulations on the release of the second edition after 10 years.



A few questions is not easy but all in all simple:

1. As a second edition differs from the first (the number of pages / characters, the number of photos)?

2. How much you've gone to make progress of the material in relation to this version from 10 years ago?

3. Did you give a different version of the paper, better quality than that of the first edition?



Once again sincere congratulations, this work requires great effort and passion. This is not eating "bread and butter".

This is a very big success of research and editorial whereas even what you did in the first edition.

Regards
mw

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Gentlemen,

I have many interesting and historically important running projects, albeit with pretty low intensity (due to the acute lack of time). Sooner or later, there will be some more materials, but finishing such materials is extremely difficult and time consuming (and also very costly).

As for this project itself, it is doubled compared to the 200-page-long 2006 edition (402 pages with 350 illustrations, plus the colour profiles). Evidently it contains a lot of new info. The book was fully printed in 4/4 colour (CMYK printing) in glossy paper in hardcover A/4 format. That's why it is so heavy (1,8 kgs).

Few photos available there:
https://www.facebook.com/B-Stenge-Cs...96007973861711

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Csaba,
The book arrived Wednesday. What a magnificent effort.

A4 size paper, coated paper stock with very good photo reproduction. Hard cover, no dust jacket but a illustrated cover. 402 pages. Bios of all aces starting on page 64, going to 366, from highest scoring to lowest, with 10 pages for additional "near aces". Bibliography and footnotes.

An important addition to my collection. I am really looking forward to the English translation, so I can actually read the book!

Many thanks.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Frank,

thank you for your kind words.

The English edition is scheduled for 2018.
Maybe a French and a Russian edition would be also interesting for the broader audience, but it depends on the publishers, as always.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Hello,

Looks like we shall have to be very patient. Given Helion's track record on non-appearance of projected publications in the past, I hope the publication date is not just a cruel joke. Looks to be well worth the wait! Will nestle in quite nicely with, "Baptism of Fire" - https://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/AS...dallbooksea-20

Col.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

It will be available for sure but the publication date is hazy yet (currently the manuscript is under translation).

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

I have the (English) edition of the book on order from Amazon, and they have just informed me that the scheduled publication date (in the US, at least) is now firmly set at April 2. So it looks like Helion has put the book in production; which is to say they got enough pre-orders to justify publication. Very good news!

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Frank,

It will be definitely available in this spring (it is not in the printing phase yet, but that time will come pretty soon)

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

According to the publisher, it is available now (I don't have any copies yet). The final dimensions per the publisher's page: hardback 245mm x 170mm 448 pages 335 b/w photos/illustrations, 14 colour photos, 50 tables

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Here is the complete cover of the book. It is an updated edition of the original Hungarian one, released in 2016: https://www.facebook.com/B.StengeCsa...type=3&theater

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Anybody get a copy yet?Is it worth getting?

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

I have it. It is excellent. Five to 15 pages on each ace, depending on available information. Victory lists for each ace. Lots of photos. Even has an entry for an Hungarian ace who joined the Luftwaffe.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Gentlemen,

Don't waste anytime on this deal. Six days to go.

Has to be the bargain of the year.

This book will sell out quickly.

https://www.naval-military-press.com...ond-world-war/

Col.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Thanks for the alert.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Wonderful book! A real "must have"!

//Håkan

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Thanks for the tip.
Another one 'from the area' in a bargain price as well:
https://www.naval-military-press.com...ces-1919-1945/

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Vol. 2 of Magyar Warriors has an extensive chapter, 170 pages, about the organisation and activity of the Hungarian air force, from the aftermath of WW 1 until the end of WW 2. The chapter also has 20 tables, including those of top aces and aircraft deliveries (Italian and German). The longest table includes the complete aircraft production in Hungary (1890 aircraft in total, not including purely civilian types and gliders). A significant amount.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Just picked up a copy,Fantastic book!

Cheap copies here:

https://www.naval-military-press.com...ond-world-war/

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

I suspect that Csaba is not going to see much in the way of royalties from these copies sold for 20 pounds. If I had to make a guess Helion dropped sufficient copies on Naval & Military Press, probably at 10 pounds each, so as to cover Helion's publishing costs. Csaba will be lucky to make one pound on these copies. Whereas copies sold to bookstores at a standard discount of 40 or 50% should get him 10% of the cover price, or 6 pounds. Amazon probably extracted a 60% discount or better from Helion. And since the book just came out he won't see a royalty statement until next January or so.

Don't expect to recover your costs, or time, when writing aviation history.

Sadly.

Frank.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

You're absolutely right, Frank. I also see very little royalty from Helion (and other publishers) for my books published with them.
My goal is to eventually break even - without counting the endless hours spent on working on the manuscript. I rarely match this goal.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Just to add to what Frank says, it’s common to get 10% of the price the publisher receives, rather than of the (much higher) cover price. In practice an author will usually get, in effect, about 5% of the shop price.

Pride and glory to the authors and that's all
 

In Poland, it's similar in this topic. Everyone writes for sheer glory, pride, joy, and the money is actually none. Certainly the money does not cover the relative costs of work that you have to put into writing the book.

Pride and glory to the authors and that's all...

Regards
mirekw

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

We enthusiasts are so lucky to have authors such as yourself to help fill our libraries (big or small) while expecting little or no recompense, except perhaps the very great pleasure of seeing ones work available out there for our, and future generations.
Bravo...

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

That's exactly why we write such "niche" books (by using a modern word). For readers like you. And for the posterity.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

I had an offer with significant royalties on this manuscript for the English edition (which is an updated one of the 2016 Hungarian edition), but that publisher is - I must say - very incompetent in the distribution, so for most of the people interested in this topic, the book would have been inaccessible through them. So I choose the Helion to make it accessibe to anyone and gave up the royalty. But considering the unbelievable efforts behind this project, the time and money spent in the last two and a half decades, any royalty would have been just symbolical, because it is impossible to compensate my efforts in this way.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Hello,

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL.

For those who missed the opportunity first time round, you've got just over 1 day left to pick up a copy of Csaba's "Magnum Opus". Forgotten Heroes for GBP 20.00 + P&P.

https://www.naval-military-press.com...ond-world-war/

Col.

Re: Forgotten Heroes - Aces of the Royal Hungarian Air Force in WWII (second revised, expanded edition)
 

Gents,

If you know any printed reviews and citations related to this book, please let me know.

Thanks in advance,