Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hello,

Anyone have more information on this series from Michael Balss?

https://www.bookdepository.com/Deuts...952444&sr=1-69

Col.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

I am thinking this is for the deep pockets crowd. At least 11 or 12 parts at $58.00 each. I wish Michael Balss all the best with this endeavor but it makes me wonder how many of us have bought all of Dr. Jochen Prien's output? Quite an investment, I think, although perhaps not so bad when viewed on an annual basis.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

First of all, the author has produced a book accessible to English speakers. And he even asks for corrections and additions. With so many experts here who may have many documents that will not be published in their entirety, a book like this could fill in gaps and add new knowledge. Use the Look Inside feature here:


https://www.amazon.com/Deutsche-Luft.../dp/172104941X



Usual disclaimer,
Ed

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Ed,

Thanks. I was aware of the contents. I was more interested in the scope of the work, ie how many volumes/parts, Dates/Year etc. Probably a bit early to expect that sort of information. Needs to be monitored.

Col.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hello,
Amazon has already available and ready vol.1 and vol.2 but even vol. 28!! How it is possible?
Jaco

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hello,


The author writes about Volume 28:

"Part 28 covers the Losses and Claims in the month January 1944. The big jump from Part 2 to 28 is a reaction about the mails I got to publish the late war losses parallel, so next part will be 3 June-August 1940 followed by Part 29 February 1944"

I can understand the demand for late war claims and losses.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Really tempted but... that's quite an investment !

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hello,

Thanks Gentleman.

Having had the unfortunate experience of paying out my hard-earned on another of Balss' books, I'll sit pat until I can read some reviews from people who are on top of the subject. Look forward to Forum members giving their opinions on Parts 1, 2 & 29.

Col.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Interesting never the less

Anyone in contact with Michael these days? He after all must have a large number of followers who even before anyone here is aware of things "demand 1944 is published as a parallel" to the early days.

It is quite some time since he posted anything on TOCH, and I also note that he has moved to the Philippines.....

Cheers
Stig

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

I would not buy every volume but only the months that interested me. I think Michael Balss is doing a service for the Luftwaffe research community that someone had to do. The publishing service he is using means the author can publish what might be rejected by more well known and established publishers. And he is working from primary documents.


I view Luftwaffe history as a very large puzzle that can be solved. The more pieces, the better.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Mr. EdWest2 wrote in part:
Not quite sure what this means. The history of the Luftwaffe is a function of: (1) the documents that survived the war, (2) Allied intelligence collections (ULTRA, P/W interrogations, aerial reconnaissance, etc.), (3) along with oral and written testimonials from veterans and the published literature. The final missing pieces from Item (1) are currently appearing online courtesy of the ww11GermanDocsInRussia.org project, (2) has been fully exploited by many of the researchers and historians who appear here on TOCH, and it is now too late for (3) as most of these veterans are now gone.


So, have I missed something? I'm guessing you are referring to the missing 1944 Gen.Qu.(6.Abt.)/Genst.d.Lw. Verlustmeldungen? Some of our members have pretty well reconstructed these using the summarische Verlustmeldungen at BAMA together with the namentliche Verlustmeldungen for 1944, copies of which some here have.


I don't think there are any important Luftwaffe document collections that remain undiscovered, but I would be delighted to hear about them if there are.

L.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Actually, I am in touch with him... and I also ordered a copy his Volume 2. The amazon Preview in this case is "spot on" because no matter how many pages the book has: the structure is always the same as for those that can be previewed. Also check the "Description of format" page that tells you what to expect about the sources.

As for the quality of the data: I have double-checked a few of the entries - they are corresponding to the (hardly readable) GQM Loss Lists of the time. Some are also amended with additional information (although the book does not reference the actual source).

I have also seen Michael's source data (that is: I was allowed a look into his database). Taking 1944 as an example (where no GQM Losses exist): he has roughly 39.000 losses for that year recorded. I would expect these to make it "to the books". Sources are a variety of publications so there might be a good number of errors in there, assuming the original author has made a mistake or published "Mist" (German: rubbish). But the overall compilation that Michael has delivered is (to my knowledge) unique.

On the price: Michael is publishing via amazon (they print and ship) which means that he only gets a fraction of the price. The majority comes from the printing and the fact that the books are rather "thick" (Example: Volume 28 has 334 pages) - at the end of the day, this will be expensive but on the other hand, there is a lot of information (if I recall correctly, January 1944 is roughly 2.400 losses or so).

But be aware: these are data listings. Not more (no stories around the losses) but not less...

Cheers, Andreas

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Took me time to remember but, a year ago Michael Balss was selling his 120876-losses database for $65 (PDF on a DVD - Matti Salomen on this board have a comparable database). To be compared to the about 2000€ that this book serie will cost !

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Thanks for a very helpful update Andreas

Does the losses include "Schulen" as well?
When it comes to claims, do we only get the fighter pilots view or are also gunner's claims included?

It is a bit unfortunate (in my opinion) he continues to use the same presentation style as in his night fighter books, since it creates a lot of unused space, and that much more volumes.

By simply undertaking a project, which now seems to involve perhaps up to 40 volumes in all, is a huge task. I don't know Michael's age, but I would say 60+ rather than 60- (unless he started collecting data already in his teens)

The project must by necessity stretch over many years and if the financial gain is so small, other incentives must hopefully then prevail.

I wish Michael every luck with this mammoth task. I will buy the first three volumes and compare them with what I now have ( I have bought and been given some of the loss records)

Cheers
Stig

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

----I think the content within those pdf file are written in German.

the stuff(vol 1 ,2,28) he sales on Amazon this year are written in English(or translated into English)

Am I wrong?

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Yes, the descriptions are given in English. There is not much text but you would not have to deal with German.

Andreas

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hi,

I just looked at details of part of losses suffered on 1.9.39 over Poland - the quality of research is disappointing.

Regards

Robert

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

I work in book publishing. The Amazon owned company pays a royalty that is just below half the price of the book. Similar to the 50% from a wholesale book distributor. A large press run is not required.




Ed

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

In what way Robert?

Cheers
Stig

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hi,

typos, lack of airmen names, wrong village names etc.

Regards

Robert

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hi

I knew the issue of 'lack of airmen names' before I purchased vol 1(I glanced through the preview pages before I place the order)

Didn't aware of typos & wrong village names.

Are there many typos & errors such as' wrong village names' in Vol 1?

thank you

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Thanks Robert

I can only presume that much of that is as it was taken from his original sources. I cannot fancy either GQM or NVM to bend over backwards to get Polish names right for example. Maybe he never found any Polish citizen who wanted to help him....perhaps he never tried.....

Lack of names is more puzzling, but some of the returns are extremely hard to read....

Typos unfortunately is something we all have to live with.

Cheers
Stig

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

From what I've heard his previous works and his database were know for these typos and errors (some also mentioned dubious sources), that's why I didn't buy his database at $65 last year. So I will not buy 2000€ of books just for a translation (?).

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Having just completed digesting the "Deutsche Luftwaffe Losses & Claims" Part 28 by Michael Balss, I feel the need to give it an evaluation.

While this is a very spare looking production, it does concentrate on what is important; the essential facts regarding Losses and Claims. Balss has attempted to gather what data he could find from all sources and it appears that he has done a reasonable job of that for this difficult period. He covers all unit types (JG, KG, St.G., Aufkl.Gr., TG, etc.) but deals only in flying units. No Flak, Ln. or other.

Whether or not it is "worth it" at $(Can) 65 per volume (from Amazon) is debatable depending on your needs. But I feel that it is worthwhile for us if only because it helps fill many gaps and because this is a very limited production run of a specialized work.

The Losses are most informative, attempting to cover all the losses. This has cleared up a number of mysteries. It has added some "new guys", but not a huge number.
The Claims data has also yielded some new guys, but not many. This area is dull by comparison to the Losses data.

Regarding missing names - there are few missing first names - presumeably due to source data limitations. Coverage of this series apparently skips prewar period. While I am sure that there numerous deficiencies, these appear to be quite minor in the grand scheme.

My overall impression is essentially positive, but naturally one wishes for more detail, but this would be carping in view of the massive effort to compile all this. I think that Michael Balss has done the Lutwaffe enthusiast community a great service and deserves a thank you.

Doug Stankey,
Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries editor.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hi,

I'm really enjoying the Deutsche Luftwaffe Losses & Claims series by Michael Balss. So far I have:
Part 3 - 1st June to 31st August 1940.
Part 4-I - 1st September to 15th October 1940.
Part 4-II - 16th October to 31st December 1940.
And I have:
Part 5 - 1st January to 31st March 1941 arriving any day.

Michael says he is working on Part 6 (April - May 1941) which should be available soon.

He says, "Basic sources for my data are the German GQM files and also the 'Namentliche Verlustmeldungen' = Loss report of a unit for a plane and crew.

About the names of the locations "I used the names from the original sources".

As I check through the data, I am finding a few anomalies. For instance: Michael lists the loss of 8/JG26 on 1st June 1940, Lt. Kuno Wendt FSA/POW. according to Prien, the pilot was Lt. Gustav Sprick.
Also, Michael lists the loss of KGr.zbV.107 as occurring on 1st June 1940. Shot down by RAF Blenheim in Norway, with the pilot Uffz G. Werkmeister KIA, and 3 crew KIA names not reported. However, the pilot Uffz. Gerhard Werkmeister died on 30th May 1940 and is buried in Oslo-Alfaset, Norway.
(I can't check the dates of the other 3 KIA as names unknown).

Would be good if we could have a Michael Balss "Corrections" thread on here to try to sort out any inconsistencies?

My overall opinion is that the books are worth the money and Michael has done a lot of work. I wish him all the best.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

About the names of the locations "I used the names from the original sources".

Which often aren't helpful in my experience. A lot of people in the Luftwaffe evidently had real problems with non-German place names.

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

.....which in my experience goes for any country. I for instance have huge spelling problems when it comes to French or Italian names/places. Not easy when a language sort of swallows half the word as "unpronounced"

Travelling east I suppose the Germans tried to spell Russian (Soviet) names as they pronounced them, which today is pretty baffling when trying to locate where they actually were (or crashed)

Come to think of it, you British are not to bad at "swallowing up" certain group of words either. Unless taught, who can imagine that, for instance, Gloucester should be pronounced as Gloster? Luckily the manufacturer understood what was at stake.... :D

Travelling in Wales, I am quite sure even a linguistic professor will have a hard time spelling certain place names. Me? I refuse to even try....

Cheers
Stig

Re: Latest from Michael Balss.
 

Hi,

I would just like to say that Michael Balss has today started a new Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1620...location=group.

The group has been set up for the following reason quote "I write and publish the - Deutsche Luftwaffe Losses & Claims series - so now there area already the volumes 1 - 5 and 27 - 31 available at Amazon. Like everyone I´m also just a human being and far from perfect. So there are and for sure there will be errors and mistakes in the already published volumes and the future ones. OK some are simply miss typed and not nice to see but not so important (if there is for example FW 190 instead Fw 190) but there are also errors and/or mistakes that maybe important and what also important there are new data available about a loss. So here have a place for mainly the people who collect the series to A: if they find something wrong or missing - here is the place to post it ! My main source are the General Quartiermeister Akten - GQM files - but even this files had lots of errors , several pages badly to read and several missing - specially the year 1944 and big parts of 1945. So if you find something wrong - post here, if you have a missing loss or example: the loss is in one volume but no names - you have a name post it here.
Please : when you post then also post your source where your information is coming from! I´m glad that Steven Roberts joins me as Co-Administrator here and will help with his experience - thank you."

Please join the group.
Steve