The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hello,

Several people on this board in personal messages have asked me to explain what the EOE Data Base is all about. Rather than answer the question over and over to each individual, I've decided to post a general statement about this on TOCH.

First of all, what is the EOE Project? EOE stands for Eagles Over Europe (EOE), which is the European air war counterpart to my Eagles Over the Pacific (EOP) book series. The ultimate goal of the EOE Project is to work with as many of the best authors, historians, researchers, photo collectors, artists and mapmakers available throughout the world to produce a multi-volume series of books that would be, in effect, the definitive history of the air war in Europe for the period 1 September 1939 through 31 December 1940, a period that I've been intensely interested in for about 50 years (I'm 64 now). Even though I'm now retired and can devote full time to the EOP and EOE Projects, I estimate that this will take about 10-15 years to complete all of the volumes, depending on the resources put into the project on my part and the level of cooperation that I receive from others.

The EOE volumes will be published in sequence, beginning with the Polish Campaign, perhaps on a schedule of two every year beginning in about 1-2 years from now. I envision at least two volumes per subject, one primary and one secondary (at least two primary volumes on the WC and possibly 3 primary volumes on the BoB through the end of 1940). Each primary volume will be chronological, illustrated by as many as 1000 photos and maps, and at least one secondary volume will be published that includes definitive appendices, much more photography and other appropriate materials. Each volume will be approx 500-750 pages each in length on 8 1/2 x 11" page size (similar to continental A-4 I think). The first volume on the Polish Campaign will not be published until three of my Pacific air war books, now almost finished, are off to the printer within the next few months.

Some material being considered for the secondary volumes may include rosters of all airmen on all sides involved in the time period relating to the book, plane serial number lists with tactical numbers and pilots, where known, and full victory claims lists on all sides. We will include a full list of lost and damaged aircraft on all sides, but I'm not sure how this is going to be handled, whether in the primary volumes or as, in effect, an appendice in the secondary volumes. It is also possible that if we have enough photography and other relevant materials that further "secondary" volumes on any given time period can be published. So, in effect, the series can expand as necessary to include further research and additional photography which might become available.

As part of this project, I expect to create 1000 or more top-quality full-color aircraft profiles, which will include an effort to portray not less than one historically documented aircraft from each squadron involved in a covered period of time, including transport, recon, maritime and other lesser known units, but not training aircraft. These will include the aircraft of all major combat leaders and many, many "aces" and, hopefully, for the Luftwaffe, all "Knight's Cross" winners. These are not intended, however, to only show the most well-known or successful pilots, but many aircraft of the line airmen of lesser fame as well. I intend to work with as many of the very best researchers in the field as possible to help create the info for these profiles, so that they set a standard for historical accuracy never before achieved in the field for a project of this scope.

We fully intend to "map" all of the major air activity, perhaps as often as each day, and with all major missions. Many innovative mapping techniques based on the latest map-making software and technology are being explored.

So what has been achieved so far? Given the long lead-time of such a project, initial exploration of the feasibility of such a project began in 2004, and has resulted in four major trips to Europe by myself over the past three years to investigate how this could be achieved, and contact some of the people who might be involved. To date, some forty people in twelve countries have offered to support or help with the project in varying degrees, everyone from some of those widely considered to be the top experts in their field, to local researchers who cover only one small region or narrow field of research. Some of those will likely be co-authors or associate authors of the individual volumes. Most or all of the volumes will likely have multiple co-authors. Anyone who contributes or participates will be full acknowledged for their help. This isn't a conventional publishing project, but rather an effort to pool the tremendous amount of material and information together under one umbrella to published the definitive texts on the subject for the periods covered.

The response to my efforts has been absolutely overwhelming to the point that it has often bogged things down because such a huge amount of photos and research material has been made available to the EOE Project. To organize and handle this volume of material, we've created a massive photo data base that now numbers about 23,000 images, all catalogued in great detail for retrieval purposes. Thousands of more images are awaiting coding and processing into the DB.

To support the project, the EOE WG is compiling a very detailed data base of every Allied and Axis aircraft lost or damaged, covering the entire 16-month period of time. This is similar to the format that Peter Cornwell has used for his massive volumes on the French Campaign, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, only expanded and updated. This part of the EOE project is making excellent progress, under the direction of Peter Cornwell, with all Luftwaffe losses during the Polish Campaign, the Phony War and the Scandinavian Campaigns now being completed through April of 1940. Another team is working on a Polish loss list, which has been compiled through a Version 1 draft. I should note that the loss lists will include all losses on all sides during the entire 16-month period, including in the German homeland and North Sea Operations, not just the specific campaigns.

As sources, we started with two major private data bases, one provided by Jim Perry, based upon the QM Reports, but greatly expanded by all other sources know to him, and another provided by Winfried Bock, which, besides the QM Reports, includes information from all the known NVMs. Winfried has also provided chronological data for each day during the period for Luftwaffe victory claims.

One real breakthrough was the unexpected acquisition a little over a year ago of the 75,000-page personal archive and 6000-page manuscript of Heinrich Weiss, who passed away a few years ago. He spent decades of his life compiling a massive data base from the BA, WASt and other archives sources, including Allied, which were then distilled into two versions of a very detailed history of Luftwaffe and Allied air operations in the west from 9.39 through about mid-1941. This time line very closely parallels the period of the EOE project. His personal manuscripts, for which I acquired copyright from his family, are in German, and are part of a massive project which has been on-going for the past three years to translate the key documents, books and articles relevant to the project. For, example, to date, we've translated approximately 3000 pages of material from Polish into English, just for the PC part of the project. Other translating efforts are ongoing in French, Dutch and German.

Before this becomes a book in itself, I'm going to end this for now (my wife is calling dinner), so I'm going to leave this open for questions. I encourage anyone who has something to contribute to this effort, no matter how small, to contact me. This is an inclusive effort, and is designed to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities opened up by the internet, eBay, Google Earth, and other advances in technology. We badly need volunteer translators willing to help with the huge amount of research material that needs to be turned into English for this project. Anyone willing to be part of this project is welcome to become a member of the EOE Working Group (WG), which does not preclude your being able to pursue your own personal projects, as many of our WG members are already doing. Also, I'm very willing to exchange information, particularly with those that are willing to make their photos, archives and research available for the project.

So, off to dinner here in Boulder, Colorado, at the foot of the beautiful US Rocky Mountains.

PS: If anyone can fix the meltdown in the world economy, that would be a major contribution to this project!

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

About the meltdown. Fear not, Larry. Things will sort themselves out as they did the last time.



Best of luck,
Ed

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Ed,

Thanks for the encouragement. I just hope this isn't different than "last time."

Another point that I want to make about the EOE DB. One of the efforts upon which we are expending a lot of resources is locating and matching photography of every aircraft damage/crash that we possibly can and integrating this "photo intelligence" into both our loss data base and captions for our photo collection. We have matched up a very large number of crash photos with the specifics of the incidents and added many a/c codes, W.Nr.s and details of what happened to the aircraft, particularly in the case of shoot downs from either flak or fighters, to our DB. This has only become remotely feasible due to the huge number of crash photos that have appeared in recent years on internet sites such as eBay, where one can see as many new, useful photos in a day as you used to see in the new literature in a year. The owners of several major photo collections have joined our project, and we have been able to acquire a very large number of photos of the aircraft losses, both Allied and Luftwaffe, in this way. The handwritten captions on the back often are invaluable in helping us pinpoint which crash or forced-landing in our data base this photo represents, and since loss info in the Luftwaffe QM reporting is often only the area the plane was last seen, a photo on the ground with a specific location is often as precious as gold to us. I encourage anyone who can help us match crash/damage photos with the Luftwaffe loss reporting, to give us a hand. Even if its for only a single photo for which you have info, or a small number of them. We're not just interested in the "big fish," but the little ones too.

You've seen me ask some questions related to this problem on the TOCH Board, sometimes with marvelous results. So if you have any unique photos and want to share scans of them with us, we'd be glad to hear from you. We're also systematically searching and obtaining photos for our data base from the major "official" collections in Europe and the USA, which we've been scouring for the past three years both for photos and identification info. We may well publish 10,000 or more photos in our various volumes from the 16-month period we're covering, and I assure you that it will be the most comprehensive collection of Luftwaffe photography for our period that has ever been presented. Period.

I also want to thank all of those who've contacted me on the Private Message Board and offered your assistance and support. It is most welcome.

All for now.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

How many books are there in the EOP series? I can only find two, namely Warpath Across the Pacific and Revenge of the Red Raiders.

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

23,000 photos, and you still don't have one of Rubensdörffer's 110...!!! Keep searching, Larry, keep searching!

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hello!

Does The Eagles Over Europe -project include (Luftwaffe in) Finland?

From the description one can get impression that the project deals only Luftwaffe and it's non-Soviet adversaries. Yet Finland is part of Europe (as is Soviet Union/Russia etc.). So what is the geographical definition of "Europe" in the context of your project?

With Best Regards,
Kari Lumppio

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Kari, et. al.,

Good question. At present, the beginning of the project is 1.9.39, with the German invasion of Poland, but we have gathered loss/victory materials for the Russo-Finnish War, leaving that an open issue for now. Regarding other countries, this project covers in minute detail the air operations involving all countries involved, not just the Luftwaffe.

This is a Luftwaffe interest board, so I might have over-emphasized the Luftwaffe side of things in my postings.

Regarding John Vasco's comment about Rubensdörffer's 110, I feel that we have enough info now to do a 99% accurate color profile of his aircraft, but I'll keep searching John. Never fear. It's out there and we'll get it.

To Jim's question, about the EOP series, there are two volumes in print, three more finished except for final editing and layout (Rampage of the Roarin' 20's, Saga of the Sun Setters, Ken's Men Against the Empire), plus a two-volume history of the 3rd Bomb/Attack Group (Harvest of the Grim Reapers--Vol I & II) is well down the pike. Beyond that are possible future volumes on the 35th Fighter Group and the Tainan Kokutai, as well as another major Japanese history.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Thanks for the update Larry. I have Warpath Across the Pacific and Revenge of the Red Raiders. Superb books. Can't wait for the others to hit the street! :)

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry,
Since you mention that 3 more EOP books are close to completion are you able to project tentative publication dates? or at least your plan?

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Need artists, you say? ;)

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry,
I'll slip this question in, since you haven't replied to the last few posts. Do you have any expections/hopes/desires/capabilities of doing the units in 13th AF (I will ignore 7th, 11th and 20th AFs)? Two fighter groups and two bomber groups I believe.

I am really glad to see 35th FG among the possibilities for EOP.

Enjoy!

Frank.

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Frank et. al.,

The three massive EOP unit histories are very close to completion. My only comments is that I expect all three of them to be released in 2009.

To Frank, yes, I actually have a great deal of info/photos on the 42nd BG, 13th AF. However, that project is presently on hold for completion of the 5th AF projects, although it could be done at some point. My interest in it is that that would round out all of the important B-25 Strafer units from the Pacific theater, a subject near and dear to my heart. These units took the best war photography that I've ever seen.

All for now.

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hi Larry

Please forgive my curiosity, but if you have the time could you give us an update on your project?

Many thanks

Chris

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Chris S.

Yes, it's time for a brief update. Although it's not topical to the subject of this message board, tonight we're uploading the 312th B.G. History, "Rampage of the Roarin' 20's" to the printer's server: 416-pages, 710 photos, including some color, 36 of the best color profiles ever created showing the unit's aircraft, 12 maps, 4 stunning color "squadron" paintings by Jack Fellows, 1 cut-away schematic of the A-20--a total tour-de-force. This includes an appendix listing EVERY aircraft that served in combat with the unit, including service history, nicknames, nose artwork and crews. We have photos in the book of just about every aircraft that served with the unit. The book will be available for shipping in about 6 weeks. Now going through the system is the 650-page 38th Bomb Group history, "Saga of the Sun Setters," which should be out late this spring.

More topical for a Luftwaffe board, our EOE Working Group, through the tremendous effort and direction of Peter Cornwell, has now completed a very detailed loss list of all Luftwaffe losses from 1 Sept. 1939 through 31 August 1940. Peter, with a temporarily broken brain, has taken a short break, but will soon continue to complete our data base through the end of 1940. Peter has significantly improved and enhanced his previously published material from already existing publications, plus added all other theaters and campaigns, and filled in the gaps between other published sources. When we're done with the Luftwaffe, we'll start over again with Allied losses, although we have already completed a very detailed loss list for Polish losses during September, 1939.

Our new Luftwaffe DB includes info on every loss in every theater, and includes material from just about all of the NVMs that exist, plus a great deal of new material from photos, unit records, logbooks and interviews with many Luftwaffe participants, some previously published, others not. Teams are working in the Netherlands, Belgium and France to locate photos and more data which adds to the accuracy of our Luftwaffe loss listings in those countries.

As owner of the copyright to about 6,000 pages of manuscript on the German side in every theater during this period, compiled from decades of research in the German archives by the late Heinrich Weiss, we've been focusing on getting this manuscript translated from German into English. We're focused on the May-June, 1940, Western Campaign right now and have completed work on many hundreds of pages of this manuscript, representing the period from 10 May through 9 June, and one test day from the Battle of Britain, August 16, 1940.

The scope and completeness of this manuscript is breathtaking. There is a tremendous amount of new material, with a typical day of German operations being 20-60 single-spaced typewritten pages, plus notes and appendices. We've continued to acquire supplementary logbooks, unit records, and hundreds of photos to supplement areas where German records have not survived.

Our electronic photo data base is now up to 24,000 images, about 70% of them Luftwaffe. Several new photo collectors have joined our research group during recent months, and have made available several hundred new photos that we didn't previously have.

One of our Belgian volunteers has been doing excellent translation work on French-language sources and we've now got several hundred pages translated into English, including Peter Taghon's outstanding book on the Belgian Air Force during the WC. Several Dutch EOE Working Group members have also helped with a significant amount of translation work from Dutch sources into English.

A small amount of additional translations of books, magazine articles and research materials from Polish to English have been completed since my earlier report, adding to about 2000 typewritten pages we've previously completed. We now have a very detailed loss list for both the Luftwaffe and the Polish Air Force, and very detailed histories compiled for most participating units, including lists of most airmen participants and all missions flown on both sides.

Renowned British artist and Battle of Britain historian Dennis Knight has nearly completed a series of very detailed perspective diagram/maps of the significant actions throughout the Battle of Britain period. Nothing like them has ever been done before and they make very complicated air actions by hundreds of aircraft understandable and clear.

Very few of our researchers have complete Ju88 and Do17 fins from Battle of Britain crashes in their personal collection--Dennis does. As a Yank, I'm still trying to repatriate the sword in Dennis' collection that he suspects was taken from the White House when the British burned the place in 1814. Will probably have about as much luck with that as the Greeks have had in retrieving the "Elgin marbles" from the British Museum.

We have 40-some people helping with, contributing to or directly working on this project, almost all of them volunteers and many of them contributors to this board. If you have something useful to contribute and want to be part of this project, please contact me through the personal message board, and I'll send you my email address so that we can correspond directly. More volunteer translators of French to English and German to English sources would speed things up a lot.

TIme for bed.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

That sounds like a massive undertaking, Larry! Very impressive.

Rampage of the Roarin' 20's
 

Larry
Has Rampage of the Roarin' 20's started shipping? Your Website projected May 20th

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Del,

The shipment of books arrived locally Friday and will start shipping on Tuesday (Monday is a major holiday in the US). I've received my advanced copy and it is spectacular.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

great news

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

This is very good news. Good luck to you and all your volunteers and coworkers.



Best regards,
Ed West

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Del & Ed,

Thanks for your good wishes. My next book, "Saga of the Sun Setters," will be a 650 page blockbuster, with over 1000 photos. It should be going to the press in a few weeks.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry
Sounds like the dam has finally burst. It has been a long wait but it is good hear that it was worth it

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry

Since everyone is rather talking about your latest book than EOE may I just say this

I am VERY, VERY happy to say I have managed to get your new book from Christian Schmid in Germany. Got it yesterday and it truly matches up with the previous two I already have.

Thanks again for doing this outstanding job with the bomber units in the Pacific. Otherwise it is all fighters, fighters and guess what even more fighters....:D

I join the rest of the choir who is looking out for your "block buster".

Take Care
Stig

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Stig,

Thanks for your comments. They are appreciated. If you liked, "Rampage of the Roarin' 20's." Wait until you see our forthcoming "Saga of the Sun Setters" It will blow your mind.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hello,

To update you on where we are, when we complete our translation of the Weiss "Coastal War" manuscript, this will provide an extremely detailed new resource document, compiled over many decades of work in the German archives, and from Allied sources as well, on the Battle of Britain period. Weiss makes his own errors, but this will provide another very useful perspective on the period. However, we have some 6000 pages to translate, and we've only completed his "Coastal War" manuscript (one of two) from 10.5.40 through 10.7.40, the first "official day" of the BoB. Now we're back to the WC, and have translated the first six days of his "Original" manuscript beginning on 10.5.40. We've also translated as a "test case" the manuscript for 16.8.40 (my apologies to Robert Dixon for not doing 15.8.40), for use in a very detailed mapping project that the EOE team is working on. IIRC, just August 16th alone ran something like 40-50 single-spaced typewritten pages in the original German text, and this was with no personal accounts.

We’re focusing on translating the WC material from May-June, 1940, because, despite a huge amount of reporting by Weiss, we feel that this part of our history needs the greatest amount of work to achieve a high degree of accuracy and completeness. We are attempting to supplement this material by French reporting (including translating the Gillet books), photography, German Flugbuchs, KTBs, unit histories, interviews and any other sources that we can lay our hands on.

Since it will obviously take a great deal of time and effort to translate the entire manuscript from 1.9.39 through 31.12.40 (it continues through 6.41) and get our massive EOE project published, I will entertain serious, specific inquiries relating to the information in the two manuscripts so as not deny this material to other worthy research projects that may be underway by other researchers. This cannot, however, seriously distract us from our overall goal of getting this project completed and published. Other postings to recent Andy Saunders TOCH question threads today by both Peter and Robert give some indication of the value and detail of the Weiss materials. As key members of the EOE WG (Working Group), both Peter and Robert have access to the original Weiss manuscripts, but cannot release materials from them without my approval. So don't approach them with your requests, but post them on TOCH, send me a personal message or contact me directly by email. Please note that I'm about to start a couple of months of intensive chemo and radiation therapy for cancer, so don't overwhelm me.

Keep in mind, our objective is not just to translate and publish the Weiss material, but to use it as one source for an overall, massive effort to produce, in English, the definitive historical texts on the air war from all sides from 1.9.39 through 31.12.40. This will include a great deal of the "human" aspect of the air campaigns, both on the ground and in the air, that sources like Weiss really don't deal with in any detail.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hi Larry: I'm one of those looking forward to the release of this massive project that your undertaking. With all due respect to your personal health, I wish you well. Regards. Dean

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry, you obviously have a track record when it comes to publishing blockbusting unit histories, but are you seriously contemplating having 6,000 pages of text translated before actually producing anything ..? The scope of the project seems frankly mind-boggling

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

I have my father's own account of his invovement in the first day over Poland (Luftwaffe - bomber) - includes some info on airbase and targets.

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Dear FalkeEins,

Valid question. We're not waiting to translate all of the materials from the Weiss manuscripts to use as reference materials before starting the series. We're working systematically where we know that research will be the most difficult and is less well covered previously in the literature, so we know what we've got to deal with in terms of German reference material. We've already translated about 2000-pages of material from German and Polish into English for Volume I of the Polish Campagn. If you'll go to our website (www.airwar-worldwar2.com/) you'll see that that volume is already announced. We're working on the cover painting for it right now. This will be the first volume in the EOE series to be followed regularly by massives volumes in each of the following campaigns. This could be a 10 year project before we finish to December, 1940, but we've already achieved huge advances.

I hope this answers your question.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hi Larry

Please forgive my curiosity, but if you have the time could you give us an update on your project?

Many thanks!

Chris

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry - how many volumes on Polish Campaign you are going to publish?


All the best,
Andrzej

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Andrzej,

We are planning on one massive volume on the PC. This will be the format book for the entire EOE series. We're still involved in massive research on this project, and are still in the middle of collecting and translating both German and Polish-language sources into English. Much, much progress, but we're still quite a ways from publication. If you have any information or photos you would like to contribute to this project, please contact me by PM Board.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry - thanks for the info.

As for the contribution to the EOE volume on the PC - I've tried twice to do that (that is contact via PM) but received no response.
If you are interested in the cooperation just drop me an email (you can find it on my webpage or contact page on this Forum)


Cheers,
Andrzej

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Larry
Can you please update us as to the status of your Eagles over the Pacific books. A few months ago you seemed on the verge of publication but nothing new has appeared. A "Sticky" on the Allied board would be nice

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hi Larry, hows the EOE Project progressing, are you any nearer to a publication date yet for the first installment?
Can you give us an update, time permitting.

Best regs,
Steve.

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hello Mr. Hickey,

A truly incredible project, I cannot commend you enough.
I myself am working on a very focused project, and if something of use for you comes along I will provide.

Just some comments.
You need to start earlier then Sept 1, 1939.
At least a complete listing of all air forces of each side, OrBat, equipment, etc.
You need to also consider the Spanish Civil War. Much of what happened there had profound influence on the coming world war.

I realize both mean extra work, but the prolong helps to understand the main event.

Good luck!

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project Update
 

Hello,

In response to a number of requests from readers of this board, I'm taking this opportunity to provide a comprehensive update on the status of the "Eagles over Europe" Project.

This past 18-months or so have been very challenging for me. I've survived a major crises as a result of being diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer on one of my salivary glands, which was life-threatening. This resulted in full regime of surgery, radiation and chemo treatments which have resulted in being recently given a clean bill of health from my doctors. I've also implemented a strict weight loss and exercise program that combined with beating the cancer, I feel have prospectively added another 15-20 years to my life that I otherwise wouldn't have had. My family has also had to recently deal with the tragic loss of my mother to cancer, cleaning out the family home, getting it onto the market, and moving my 88-year old dad to an assisted living facility near my home.

During the past several years, my primary focus has had to be on bringing a number of long-pending WW II Southwest Pacific American bomber unit histories to completion. During the past three years, two of them have been published, and three more, comprising four volumes, are very close to publication. Although not Luftwaffe related, these can be reviewed, if interested, at http://www.airwar-worldwar2.com/, the website for my company, International Historical Research Associates.

Now on to an update of the EOE Project. A project of the magnitude and scope of the EOE Project has a long lead time to acquire the information and photography, while moving forward with planning and executing the maps and artwork. No final decisions have been made for the authorship of the various volumes, but a number of top researchers and historians are likely to be involved as authors, co-authors and associate authors on the various projects once the necessary research has been completed. It is obvious to me that none of the seven primary volumes will have a single author. While I have been busy dealing with the projects and problems related above, the EOE Working Group, which numbers about 40 people at present in 13 countries, has focused their efforts in the following eight main areas:

a) Creating a massive all-source data base (DB) of every Axis and Allied a/c loss or damage and crew casualty for the entire project period, excluding only training losses. Peter Cornwell, one of our WG members, has now completed our comprehensive Luftwaffe loss DB which contains many thousands of entries, with a major effort made to assess causes of loss, damage or casualty, and attribute these to specific combat events and pilots on the other side. Readers of this forum will be well familiar with Peter's work, as he has generously shared many items from this revised DB in answer to questions here. Most of you are probably also familiar with his previously published work for the "After the Battle" publisher on this subject. Peter's revised and updated EOE DB now takes all this previously published material, re-evalutates it, fills in all the gaps, including air ops over Germany, and updates all of his previous work on the subject from every possible source available. There is still a great need to pinpoint the exact crash sites for many Luftwaffe losses during the Western Campaign of May-June, 1940, and this is probably the area where the greatest amount of work can still be done, much of it through aviation archaeology that is ongoing in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Photography is also making important contributions to this effort.

We've also completed a similar data base on the Polish Air Force for 9.39, and are now working on a parallel DB for all British aircraft losses/damages for the EOE period, including Bomber Command and Coastal Command. Again, this is based upon Peter's previous work but greatly expanded and updated. Peter has recently already done similar data bases on the Dutch and Belgian AF, as well as the French AF, although the latter still probably needs a lot of work. All of these DB are undergoing constant revision, and probably will be forever. I want to encourage anyone who believes that they have located new and/or updated material on any aircraft loss incident during the 1939-40 period to contact me or Peter Cornwell so that this can be evaluated for inclusion into this definitive data base.

b) Collecting and identifying all known photos of the aircraft of all sides involved in the air war during the period in question and assembling these into a massive searchable DB that presently numbers about 30,000 images. A further 10-15,000 images are awaiting processing and coding for inclusion in this DB. This includes images from the major public collections on the subject in the US and Europe, as well as a vast amount of private material from individual collections and a variety of other sources, including eBay.

c) Acquiring all relevant literature sources in English, German, Polish, French, Norwegian and Dutch on the subject. We’ve been successful in acquiring a huge volume of material during this search process, including acquiring the full rights to the two Luftwaffe historical manuscripts and all of the supporting research material compiled by the late Heinrich Weiss, which alone comprises some 50,000+ pages, of which about 5,000 pages are his own manuscripts.

d) Identifying and acquiring copies of, and transcribing the approximately 500 logbooks that we think presently exist of German airmen that flew operational sorties during this period, including maritime, reconnaissance and transport units. We've now acquired copies of about half of these, including many of the most important, and are steadily getting them transcribed for inclusion in our research data base. These logbooks have been an important source of information for Peter's work on the Luftwaffe loss DB, and will go a long way towards filling in missing information on Luftwaffe combat missions flown during the WC and the Battle of Britain, many of which are not well documented through other sources and otherwise surviving Luftwaffe records. This is another area where a great deal of further assistance from the research community would be helpful. If you have any logbooks (Flugbuch) that you think we might not know about, or for which you have a copy and would be willing to share it with the project, I'd greatly appreciate hearing from you. This applies to the logbooks of Allied pilots and aircrew men as well.

e) Identifying and acquiring all surviving KTBs (Unit War Diaries) from the 1939-40 period. Although we've acquired a substantial amount of material in this area, we've got major work yet to do. If anyone has copies of any such documents that they would be willing to share with us, this would be greatly appreciated. Again, contact me if you can help.

f) Mapping. One of our British WG members has done a magnificent series of maps for us of about 20 major days during the Battle of Britain. These will serve as the basis for our mapping part of the project. We are still trying to formulate exactly how to most effectively portray visually on maps the various major combat events, but the work of this renowned illustrator has helped us go a long way in defining how these might look.

g) Artwork. Although we've done our research for the cover painting for the first volume of the series, and held some preliminary discussions with artists on the massive amount of color aircraft profile work to be done, no final decisions have been made in this respect.

h) Translating non-English languages sources into English. This is an area that is a huge challenge for us. We've had excellent support from a number of volunteers who have helped us with German, Polish, French and Dutch-language materials, but there is a vast amount yet to do and any assistance from anyone with good dual language translation skills and the time to work on this would be appreciated. If you've contacted me before about helping with this, and haven't heard back, please contact me again.

We've now completed translating into English probably 2000 or more pages of Polish-language materials, everything from major books, to individual accounts and combat reports. A very large amount of additional material has been summarized or excerpted into highly detailed individual narratives on each Polish air unit that fought during the 1939 campaign.

Several very important sources in French have been translated into English by one of our key volunteers in Belgium, and Dutch WG members have also translated a lot of material for us into English.

Our main, but not exclusive effort on the German side has been to translate the 1939-1940 parts of the manuscripts of the late Heinrich Weiss, who did not write on the Polish Campaign, but focused instead on Luftwaffe operations in the west during 1939-41. We've completed about 2000 typewritten pages or more of translations on his work and are making steady progress on this. The Weiss material, though very valuable and state of the art for its time, is dated and will require a lot of corrections and revisions before being able to serve as the basic outline underlying our research on the Luftwaffe side of the story for the period of the EOE Project.

So that gives a pretty good idea of what's been going on during the past couple of years. Huge progress, but a great deal of effort yet to go just to acquire and translate the materials necessary for a project of this scope and complexity.

The first volume, on the Polish Campaign, will probably not be published for at least a couple of years yet. This will serve as the prototype book for the series and I don't intend to rush this to press before I'm sure that we've achieved our goal of the definitive history of the subject, with all the appropriate photos, appendices, artwork and maps. The second volume, on the so-called Phony War and the Scandinavian Campaign will likely follow about a year after that. In the meantime, a great deal of work will be and is proceeding on the Western Campaign and the Battle of Britain, to the end of 1940, which will hopefully result in about a book a year thereafter.

At the moment, my personal message box is full, so wait a while to allow me to have time to clear it off before sending me any PM. And thanks to all of you who have helped with this and will help with this project in future. The EOE research team has contributed thousands of hours of work to this project and they are making a huge effort to do this important project justice. Many of them are among the top researchers in their respective fields, and we will all owe them a great debt of gratitude for their efforts as these volumes are published.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hi Larry,

I'm glad that you are well, especially after such traumatic events - and thanks for the detailed update. It would have taken me a few months just to type that amount of text!

I look forward to being of any further assistance to the project and truly appreciate the efforts made by yourself and the rest of the team.

Kind regards,

David

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

David,

Thanks for your kind comments. I've appreciated your valued assistance, and very much look forward to continuing to work with you.

Some have asked me why I don't list the other members of the EOE Working Group on this forum. I'd prefer to let them make the decision on whether they wish to be known publicly. However, a great many of them are members or contributors to this forum. I'd also like everyone to know that even a single piece of info or a single useful photo is appreciated. You don't have to be one of the heavy-hitters in the field to participate or contribute to the EOE Project.

I'd also like to note to those who have been telling me, that I've now cleaned off enough space on my Private Message in-box, to receive more incoming PM.

Regards,

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Hi Larry,

thanks for the update.

I must agree that the starting point for your EOE project must be earlier.

Truly, the Second World War officially started on September 1, 1939, but what preluded this was important for the further events in that War.

At least you should make a "prelude chapter" to the book(s).

The Spanish Cicil War was of importants to test the capabilities of the various German aircraft and the fighter pilots and undoubtly also the other German aircrews and pilots gained very important experience that was invaluable in the upcoming battles.

Many of the German fighter pilots were already experienced in earial combat and that influenced the upcoming aerial battles immencely.

The combat testing of the German aircraft in the Spanish Civil War was also of importance.

And the Occupation of the Czech Country was also important for the Germans. They captured a large arsenal of aircraft, including very many training aircraft that immensely helped in training the German airmen, also for the upcoming battles.

I know that this will put more strain in producing your (momumental) book project, but it is important for understanding how the following war events eveloped.

Btw, I have very many photo's of Czech aircraft used by the Germans to include in this prelude.

But after all, it's your choice and I know that you will have to make a decision from where your project starts.

Kind Regards,
Jan

Re: The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project
 

Jan and others.

I fully agree with your comments. There will be an extensive prelude and scene-setting for the book in the first and each succeeding volume, including the development of airpower between the wars in each country involved. We don't just begin on Sept. 1, 1939, but put the war and pre-war aviation and air force developments in their contexts. We aren't, however, going to cover day-to-day operations for the periods and events prior to that date like we're planning to do after that date. The pre-war chapter (s) will include a great deal of pre-war photography.

And thanks for your help with both this, and your important contribution to one of the "Eagles over the Pacific," books through the great photo album that you've supplied.

Regards,