Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Hi everyone,

My book is finally out...

Bollinger, Martin J. Warriors & Wizards: The Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Glide-Bombs of the Third Reich. Annapolis, Naval Institute Press, 2010. The book jacket includes endorsements from Rick Atkinson and Ulf Balke, amongst others. I'm pretty happy with it.

Many thanks to all those here who contributed to this. Lots of people on this forum helped and I give credit to them in the book itself. Here my objective is to thank everyone who helped create this forum and to all of the participants who have helped make it so valuable. It is a wonderful resource for historians, professional and amateur (me) alike.

Marty

Re: Thanks!
 

Shouldn't this be in the 'Books & Magazines' section...?

Re: Thanks!
 

Sorry -- this is the only section I've ever used. Didn't even know about the other.

My apologies for the apparent transgression.

Marty

Re: Thanks!
 

No sweat. You might get a bigger take-up on the book in the other section.

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Hi Marty.

Not a big deal. I've boved the thread and changed the title to reflect the subject.

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Hi Marty,



Congratulations. Being in the book publishing business myself, I know the feeling.

By glide bombs, I assume you mean types like the Hs-293. Did the Hs 294 see combat use? The Hs 295? As you can see, I'm interested to know if later developments actually appeared in combat.


Thank you for your time.




Regards,
Ed

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Ed,

Thanks for your note.

Yes, I mean the Hs 293 and the PC 1400FX ("Fritz X"). There are occasional stories (e.g., Kopp's article) of follow-on weapons such as the Hs 294 or Hs 295 being used in combat. I can't rule that out but I've yet to come across any specific data to that point.

Marty

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Seems to be very interesting book. Is there anything about Hs 293 use against Oder river bridges?

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Thank you, Marty.



Ed

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Hs 294, around 165 built. Not used in combat (lack of proper carrier aircraft and production capacity).
Hs 295, around 50 built. Not used in combat.
Hs 296, not used in combat.
There were also the Hs 297 (Hs 117) and Hs 298, too.

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Mr. Bollinger,

I just received your book today in the mail. Although I haven't begun to read it yet, I of course looked through it and am impressed. It seems well researched and dense with information. I'll begin reading it in a few days and I'm looking forward to enjoying it. Thank you for producing what promises to be an excellent book.

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

To respond to an earlier question, I focus the analysis on the antiship missions. I do discuss the attack on the Oder River bridges in just a few sentences in the Epilogue. I don't think you'll find anything particularly new here on that topic.

Marty

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Thank you very much for your answer.

Michal Skawinski

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Dear Mr. Bollinger,

I read your book with great interest and must congratulate you on a well researched and highly detailed book.

It was a great read, and seeing that you used "41 Sekunden bis zum Einschlag" written by Klaus Deumling as one of the sources for your book, I decided to read that book as well. I found it to be a very interesting personal account that presents detailed information from the German side.

After reading this book I have a question:
Klaus Deumling states that the Fritz X bomb that was dropped and guided by Unteroffizier Penz from his aircraft was the first one to hit Battleship Roma. In his book he presents a copy of the document that acknowledges his crew as the one that damaged battleship Roma. This document is signed by Geschwaderkommodore Major Jope.

In your book you state that the first Fritz X bomb was dropped and guided by Unteroffizier Klapproth from the aircraft of Geschwaderkommodore Major Jope.

Did your research yield conclusive information that the crew of Major Jope was responsible for the first hit?

By the way:
Klaus Deumling is the subject of an article in the last (January) issue of the German magazine Flugzeug Classic. Mr. Deumling is still active and acts as a guide in the German Aviation Museum Laatzen near Hannover.

Nurflügel Forever!

Huib Ottens

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Hello Huib,

Many thanks for your kind words about my book and my apologies for a delayed response to your message.

My primary source for the Luftwaffe side of the attack on Roma was Ulf Balke. He writes in his history of KG 100 that the first hit on Roma was guided by Uffz. Klapproth. He also writes that the second (and fatal) hit was guided by Uffz. Degan. While I cannot state with absolute certainty that Balke's account is correct, I did conclude based on all of the research I've done that Balke's history of KG 100 is quite definitive and thus I went with his account rather than Deumling's, especially since Deumling's was written down many decades after the event.

In end end, I cannot answer the question for certain, unfortunately.

Best regards,

Marty Bollinger

Re: Warriors & Wizards: Thanks!
 

Hi Marty

I recently obtained a copy of your book. Very interesting and useful to my own work.

Well done.

Cheers
Brian