"Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Gentlemen,

In this autumn will release my book about the Hungarian 1/3. (earlier 1/6., later 5/1.) Fighter Squadron, the "Ace of Hearts".

The book is the history of the unit from the forming till the renumbering at the end of 1941 (after it in 1942 they lost their earlier "Ace of Hearts" name as well). It contains the very detais of their combat sorties over Yugoslavia in April, 1941 and of course, over the Soviet Union too (between July and November, 1941) The materials contains the shortened combat diary of the unit too against the Soviet Union.
The book contains many unknown details not just about the 1/3. Sq, but about the Hungarian flyers in 1941 in general and about their opponents as well, including 5 air-to-air friendly fire accidents and another one ground-to-air too.

The book contains 190 photos (high number of them unpublished), 6 colour profiles and 2 maps.

Releasing date is October, 2007

I'm attaching the front cover

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Dear Csaba,
it seems very interesting -as all Your titles, I'm eagerly waiting for "Batsim of fire" from Mushroom- .
Is it only in Hungarian language or also in English or French ?

Ludovico

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Dear Ludovico,

Thanks for your interest. The "Ace of Hearts" Squadron history is Hungarian language only (the English edition is depends on the foreign publishers, as always) However, I guess, the Hungarian version will be the sweetheart of many foreign biplane fans as well (where is Håkan?;))
By the way, it contains few interesting details about Italian flyers as well (from Krivoy Rog area)

I have no info about the Baptism of Fire (that project suffered a lot of delays and some details are still hazy to me)

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Hi
sincerely congratulation for such book - pity that in Hungarian :-(.

I wonder, if you tried to match Hungarian claims in 1941 over Russian with Soviet side. There are now a few information about such combat for example of I-16s of 88. IAP against CR.42 and other Soviet fighter unist, which fought versus Fiat CR.42 in 1941?

Second I wonder if you have used some photos from Laszlo Javor collection (he supported me tens of 1/3 Squadron phoots 1937-1944, which part of course I have edited in my story)?

All the best,
Mirek Wawrzynsski
An author of following text editing in Poland including part of 1/3 "Ace of Hearts" history (in 1939 and in: 1939-42).
BTW the colors in my last text are of course colors of 1/3 Squadron's FIAT CR.42, :-)

Hungarian Falcons. Fiat CR.42 on the Eastern Front. Węgierskie Sokoły. Fiat CR.42 na froncie wschodnim, p. 11, (26 b&w photos, 2 colors of CR.42s: V-203, V2+64), [in:] Militaria XX wieku 5(14)/ 2006.
Air War over CarpathianMountain (Slowak-Hungarian Air War in III 1939). Wojna powietrzna nad Karpatami, p. 7 + 1 p. in colour (CR.32 V.108 of 1./1 Fighter Flight, Ju 86 K-2 „B.350” of 3./5 Bomber Flight, He 70 K “F.409” of 1./2. Long Reccon Flight, Avia B.534, Letov S-328), 12 b&w, [in:] Militaria i Fakty 1/2002.

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Hello Mirek,

Thanks. It is a must to publish these materials in Hungarian language first, maybe an English edition will follow as well.

Of course, it contains many details about the dogfights and every claims/losses as well (including an unpublished first hand account of a 88 IAP's pilot, who claimed an air victory against a Hungarian plane) It contains in details the story of the two pilot losses as well and their fates (including the details of the strafing mission, in which Pettendi was lost: details abut the target Soviet transport plane, and the fate of the Soviet leader, who remained in the cauldron, after the pane was strafed and destroyed, etc)
It is a very detailed and as accurate, as possible material.

Regarding the photos: I don't want to disappoint you, but I am afraid, the mentioned photos generally are not from László Jávor's collection. Most of them (all?) are repros from the genuine positives, stored at the family of Pettendi. I used these photos as from the Pettendi family collection (since I know them very well) or some of them as HTM (since the museum owns genuine photos as well).

BTW it seems to me, that some fellows bought these repros and use them as their own collection, but buying a repro's repro and using as 'own' is rather a breach of the copyrights (in one case, some of these photos were published with the credit to me - I never owned them and never stated, that these photos are mine)

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Hi

I am full aware, that photos which I had got from Laszlo was done by Pettendi, during his service in 1/3 Squadron, in fact they have been from his collection (acquired directly from pilot's family or from Museum -?).

I also know, that some fellows are buying and later reselling to others such photos under his "name". The case of G. Petrov from Russian or V. Kulikov is quite representative for such "nice" things or others.

I wonder, which exactly plane was destroyed then, I think it could be civil version of TB-3, or maybe a bomber version too, others palnes do not fit to such large type?

Regards,
MirekW

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

[quote=Mirek Wawrzynski;49752]I wonder, if you tried to match Hungarian claims in 1941 over Russian with Soviet side.[/quote]

The activity of Soviet aircraft opposing the Hungarians, and various claims from both sides, is already included in the first volume of our recently published book, From Barbarossa to Odessa.

Due to the printing extent's limitation, set by the Publisher, we could not include many details. However, the basic facts are all published in it.
More to come in volume two...

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Mirek, the book contains everything about the plane and about the Soviet leader, which they wanted to evacuate. Additionally, I found in the BA-MA an interesting report in the German 17th Army's Air Group's materials, which refers to the fate of Pettendi (I attached his posthumous German awarding document too).

Szőnyi's story is the same detailed one (I mentioned already his defeater in my aces book, but here more details) I can present a photo about him as a Soviet paratrooper partisan as well...

It contains details not just the 1/3. Sq, but about the Héja detachment (since two of their pilots were ex-Ace of Hearts pilots), and some details about the other units of the Hungarian Aviation Group, including the details of the Ju 86 loss, with the name of the pilot, who shot it down (it happened, because the bombers chosen in the last time a different direction and did not inform the fighters, they waited them for one and a half hour with running engines in vain)

But as I mentioned above, it is not just the day-by-day account of the unit over Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, it is a pretty complete unit history (very hard to write a similar one in Hungary). At the end, it contains the details of the ex-Ace of Heart pilots, who fell later in the war (two by accident, three killed in action and one was executed)


Dénes, I'm looking forward to it

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Hi
Csaba you are more secret then "KGB's + Russian archive". I can undrestand, that you want to first publish some data from your book, but in this case keeping such stricte secret (the type plane destroyed by CR.42s air attack) looks for me too much secret.


I have asked abut the plane type, I assue it was TB-3 (bomber or civil version -?). And, what is you opinion about this case (maybe other transport)?

Regards
MirekW

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Mirek,

It was not a TB-3 (check the book and you will find the answer:))
BTW from Soviet point of view, the person, which they wanted to evacuate was much more important, than the plane and from Hungarian point of view, Pettendi's loss evidently was far more important as well - it was a really serious blow, since he was an excellent pilot. So in this case, not the type of the plane is the most significant part of the story (altough it is known by me). If you are too curious, you will be older sooner;) You need to wait only till October (and tomorrow already September)

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Mirek,

Finally it was released in the last week (after some delays), but I met with it only yesterday.

So, the plane was an ANT-9 (ex civilian Aeroflot plane). It was sent for the wounded Major General Belov (cdr. of the 15 Rifle Division), who perished later without the evacuating possiblility. The very details are in the book.

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Congratulations Csaba!

Juha

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Soo where is the link to publishers site, or some promo?:) cover etc??
come on...show us your finals;)

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Thanks, Juha

PeterKa:

hehe;)
No promo, or whatever else (altough it contains many unpublished details and corrections of former erroneous publications). Since it is in Hungarian language, only few foreigners interested in this book (but in this forum you can find some, that's why I mentioned the book here)

The publisher has a pretty old site and only for distributors.

Here is the front cover:
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/view/070826/f...toltes.hu_.jpg
The pilot below is László Tomor, the Squadron's commander.

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

I can see you keep good standard of covers from your aces book;) I like it...
Good luck with the book and fingers crossed for english edition one day;)

PeterKa

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Thanks, PeterKa,

Well, since among the 190 pictures, 120+ photos from an archive, the copyright fees would be astronomical, but maybe in the future there will be a special way to publish it in English too.

Here is a site, where some sample pages are available from the book:
http://www.konyvnet.hu/konyv.php?kon...8fiMXiSOg8ITgd

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Hi Csaba,
I understand you want to publish it in Hungarian first. Ok, fine. However, as Hungarian is a small language group, you can perhaps consider to have the photo captions in Hungarian and English, an English summary and bi-lingual headings in data tables (if you include such) for victory and loss data etc etc making such material available for a larger audience.
This way I am sure you can expect a larger volume of the first edition, perhaps also then financing the speeding up a revised second edition in English.

Another way to go could be to make the book fully bi-lingual as some other publishers have choosen to do.

I believe there are many who are keen to learn more about the Hungarian Air Force WW2 history justifying an English version, and from a commercial point of view a very logic way forward.

Br
Goran

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

If doing a bilingual edition, it should be done like JaPo´s Bf 109K book, i.e. full text in the non-primary language is printed at the end of the book in one large chunk instead of going side by side on the same page which is awful.

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Goran,

the situation is not so easy. At first, when we discussed with the Hungarian publisher about this project, I said to them, that it would be the best to doing a fully bilingual version of this book. They said, that it is ok, if I found good English distributors for the project.
I asked several English language publishers, but they were not too keen. If they don't know, what does 'unpublished' mean (which should be a magic word to the publishers), or if they even don't know in which side did the Hungarians fought in the WW II - well, what should I say?
The publishers generally do not want to invest to the translation, to the copyright fees (pictures), they only want to earn money from books. In this case, there was a possibility to doing it, since the Hungarian publisher would pay for the translation and for the photos, not the English ones.
So, the bilingual idea was dropped soon, since there was a deadline in this summer for the entire material. That Hungarian publisher is not appears in the international book market, has no own contact with foreign distributors, so they did not want to invest for the translation if they can sell it only in Hungary, which is totally understandable.
To me, it is no problem, perhaps we'll do in the future few bilingual stuffz, but this one was dropped (because of the lack of English distributors). I'm not in a hurry, have many unpublished materials for some future books. Sooner or later, some of these will be available in English as well.

Jukka,

I agree with you.

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Thanks for replying Czaba. Yes, I understand the publisher attitudes you face. I believe there is room for a new publisher focusing on smaller air force's history.

I know there is a magazine Small Air Forces Observer on the subject, perhaps the idea could be expanded into books given someone is willing to "think out of the box" when it comes to book publishing.

What about making a summary in English available via internet for down loading?
Br/Goran

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

I dislike summaries*. Besides, the translation cost is there anyway.


*In some Polish Wydawnictwo Militaria books the "summary" summarizes dozens of original text in about half a page on English. That is an insult.

Re: "Ace of Hearts" ("Kőr Ász") History of a fighter squadron 1936-1941
 

Hi
Thanks for the information, I think it wa for civil airliner, so the type was interesting + the resto of the story too.
Congratulation for the next title, looks nice.
Your book about Hungarian aces is also very good, many interesting information (pity, it is only in Hungarian), but all is undrestable.
Soon or later you meybe do such title for Moshroom (compact version), they should be interested about 1/3 Squadron (?), I hope so, :-), after "13. (Slovak)/JG 52", it is also interesting title and their market.

Regrads,
MirekW