Fw 190D book
 

I am looking for a reasonably comprehensive book on the Focke Wulf Fw 190D-series, including the lesser-known variants such as the Fw 190D-11/12/13. During my search for Peter Rodeike's Fw 190 book, which has been difficult to find, I found an attractive substitute:

Focke-Wulf FW 190 Long Nose: An Illustrated History of the FW 190 D Series by Dietmar Harmann

Any opinions on this book? Thanks for any input.

Kenneth

Re: Fw 190D book
 

I never hear for book by Dietmar Harmann so I am also wonder to hear about it.

Cheers :)

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Hello,
You can find comments in this LEMB Thread regarding this book:
http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org/fo...showtopic=4381

Br/Goran

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Thanks much, the LE thread provides the information I am seeking.

K

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Glad it was of help to you! :)
Br/Goran

Re: Fw 190D book
 

My humble opinion:

I have the book and cannot rave about it, but for long-nose aficionados, it is good to have. It is a decent reference book and contains photographs I had not seen before. The text always doesn't flow well although maybe some of that is in translation.

A very fine read if you are looking for long nose action is 'Bodenplatte' book by Manhro and Putz.

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Thanks for the book evaluation and the Bodenplatte recommendation. Your evaluation is similar to the analyses on the LEMB thread (posted by FB19Gladiator) about the book--decent-to-good, but not enthusiastic. Hence, I'll probably wait and consider for a while if the Harmann book is worth obtaining versus waiting for Jerry Crandall's second volume of Focke Wulf Fw 190 'Dora' instead. The Bodenplatte book seems to be very highly regarded and I'll seriously consider purchasing it.

Re: Fw 190D book
 

I wanted to provide some interesting follow-up. Based on your suggestion, I went to the Amazon store website to order Bodenplatte by John Manrho and Ron Putz. When I placed the order, a message appeared that I had already purchased the book six months ago! Obviously I did not recall ordering it, but when I looked through my books, I found a pristine copy of Bodenplatte. I must have had a brain cramp when I ordered and received the book! BTW, you are right--Bodenplatte is a great read. It is a nicely detailed account of the Luftwaffe's death gasp, with much emphasis on the individual participants' experience.

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Apples and oranges. The Harmann book(s) are perhaps not excellent, but very good books, however they do not pack the same (if at all) level of operational material.

OTOH I prefer the two to be seperate to begin with (detailed technical or design vs operational histories). The two can be combined, but seldom present both sides on the same level.

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Thanks for the advice. Although the Manrho Bodenplatte book has few technical details of the Fw 190D-9, it has many good photos of the warplane, both intact and in various degrees of damage and wreckage. Interestingly, on first read, Bodenplatte doesn't seem have much operational narrative of the Dora. Green Hearts First in Combat with the Dora 9 by Axel Urbanke has many more operational details of the Fw 190D-9 in combat than Bodenplatte.

Re: Fw 190D book
 

To Kennethklee,

Allthough I appreciate your comments on Bodenplatte, your last remark left me a little puzzled.....

What do you expect from an operational narrative of a Fw 190D-9 pilot compared to a Fw 190A-8 pilot? I don't see any difference. If I ask a D-9 pilot to tell the story of his (last) mission, he hardly tells anything about a D-9. He tells what happened. So, what are you looking for.....just curious!

John

Re: Fw 190D book
 

I must admit I agree with you John. Although a much lauded aircraft, most of them were shot from the skies with little concern from the allied pilots doing the deed. What more is there to say?

Confusion and explanation
 

John-

I can understand why my last note in this thread was confusing, for which I apologize. To try to clear some of the confusion, I originally started this thread because I am looking for a comprehensive book on the Fw 190D-series, particularly the lesser-known variant such as the Fw 190D-11/D-12/D-13. Tony Kambic (quoted above) contributed to the thread by suggesting Bodenplatte would be a good source of "long nose action". Before Tony posted his note, I certainly had not expected Bodenplatte to focus on the Fw 190D-9, but rather more broadly on history of the ill-fated operation and the Bodenplatte participants, which is why I originally bought your fine book. For reasons I also discussed earlier in this thread, I did not read your book until Tony had recommended it, 5-6 months after I bought it.

My last comments were in response to Tony Kambic's recommendation and consequently were tangential to the original theme of this thread. Tony's comments implied to me that Bodenplatte would contain significant commentary on the Fw 190D-9 in the context of Bodenplatte, and consequently I compared it to Axel Urbanke's Green Hearts First in Combat with the Dora 9, which is essentially an operational history of the Fw 190D-9 with the JG 54 gruppe that was absorbed into JG 26 in the last months of WWII.

Based on your comments, perhaps I should have reiterated the original purpose of the thread in my last note. I hope this note makes more sense than my last note did. If not, please let me know either publicly or via PM and I can elaborate further.

Thanks,
Kenneth

Re: Fw 190D book
 

The best FW190D-9 books are from Jerry Crandall, he has a vol 2 out for late d-9, D-11 and D-13.they are both outstanding works, well worth the money

http://www.eagle-editions.com/

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Volume II of Jerry's series is not out, but "coming soon".

Re: Fw 190D book
 

Dietmar Harmann's book for sure supplements two amazing Dora books (both in two volumes) from Japo & Eagle Editions. But on the other hand, even some less "great" books sometimes carry a photo or an info that is worth gold... so I wonder, can one have enough books about the type he loves?

On the side note, there were stories about 3rd volume from Japo and I wonder if with the unfortunate death of one of the authors this will ever become reality? I for sure would love to have it!