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In General, What is Everyone Doing?
I'm trying to understand why such ultra-specific, super-detailed questions about Luftwaffe pilots, crash events and individual aircraft details are nearly all that is asked on this forum. (This is an honest question, please don't flame me.)
As for me, I'm working on a screenplay (for a major motion picture production company) circa late 1943 about the struggle for air superiority over Europe from primarily the German/Luftwaffe perspective. So details are wonderful, but some of the questions (and the amount of incredibly specific information that everyone seems to have in reply) is almost off the hook crazy. Wow. Are people writing super detailed unit/pilot/aircraft histories? What's going on here? Bronc |
Re: In General, What is Everyone Doing?
Hi Bronc,
First of all you need to start with Members List; and check ages if indicated. Most of us did start during the sixties when 12 or 14; reading "true stories" wrote by Galland, Rudel and consors. We did start, too, being modellers waiting/(hoping) to be pilot... In the mean time Books started to be written but, with time, it appears that they weren't that accurate ... So, a lot of members did start looking for archivs, to meet pilots etc... To search for new pictures and so on... To make lists, to compile datas, to correct old stories, to rewrite what they wrote, to add details, to make profiles for themself and for other modellers and so on ... Last week, an enthomologist did discover a new insect photographied in Borneo Island (or kind of) and made contact with the photographer. Through Flickr! he was able to confirm it was a new, non described, specie. We do the same through eBay, through veteran sites, personnal blogs through family album put in line by ex luftwaffe sons & grandsons. Some are looking for familiars history... Let's say many here are historians, writters, designer and or just amateurs. We are archeologists and, at least, one is a true archeologist. Some are divers looking for wrecks. Others are researching wrecks in fields... What else? Yes, it's a world wide community! You're question matches with thoughts I had couple of days ago. What happens here deserve to have a reportage on TV!!! This is my little contribution to your question. I'm sure many are able to do better than I did. Helpful? Cheers, Franck. PS: And it's a friendly community!.. Well... normally :D. |
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I think it's a fair question. The site is skewed towards operational issues, overly so in my view. In some ways this is an extension of the interest most of us developed in our earlier days. These days very little seems to appear which is related to type history which from my perspective is a shame as there is still a lot to be nailed down about various machines and productive avenues still to be followed. Perhaps most disappointingly, there is very little focus on aircraft production as the production failures of the pre-war and early war period pretty much sealed Germany's fate. We do lack a more rounded debate but it may well be that there are just too few folk interested in this aspect.
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Apart from what Steve and Franck have said I think to some case it is down to the old saying from little acorns large trees grow. In my case being 'older' nearly all of my school mates had dads who served in the war, this then extended to some school teachers, and on starting work a lot of the older guys also served. The wealth of wartime books also wetted the appetite for more info. which for a while was withheld from the public as secret. I was mainly interested in the Battle of Britain for which there was a wealth of information so I started to look into the Steinbock attacks for which there was very little. As wartime records became available to the public suddenly you could research details about raids and the crash your relatives told you about. In one case the Dornier Flying Pencil shot down at Bishops Court Chelmsford proved to be a He 111 and a crewman survived contrary to stories told by my mates dad. The advent of the home computer suddenly made so much info. available and put you in contact with others that it was possible to extend your interest a lot further. In my case it is the raids and the men that interest, the technical details and production figures of aircraft are secondary to this so TOCH suits me, there are other sites which appear to cater for those with a more technical interest. One thing I have noticed is that answers on TOCH lack a sometimes aggresive reply that I have seen on other forums,
Just My Thoughts Regards Brian Bines |
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Hi, all!
The answer by Franck is more or less all covering, and although I did not start in the sixties (born late in the sixties...) my interest stems from the fact that both my grandfathers were involved in the fight against the German occupation of Norway, one of them later went on to spend the rest of his life as an aviation technician. My ancestors on my father side came from a small community near the Lesjaskog lake, where several Gloster Gladiator fighters were destroyed, and close to the crash location of several German bombers. As children these remnants of the past and the stories told naturally spurred an interest. Currently I am working on the following: Two book projects - directed towards the operational units of Luftflotte 5 mainly. Several articles - mainly these will be covering organizational issues - the one closest to completion will describe to my current knowledge the system for loss registration, recovery, repair and supply of aircraft In addition I am collecting information on aircraft production - the collection is already vast but not entirely catalogued - aiming towards publishing (most probably online) information on this field. In addition I have with a good friend of mine gone through the entire available collection of Luftwaffe loss records and entered most of them in a relational database for reference. Regards, Andreas B |
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Hi All, Hi again Bronc,
Let me open my mouth again for a little break: To make short - Are people writing super detailed unit/pilot/aircraft histories? Yes (not me) - What's going on here? Let's say Collectors' place. And note Andreas motto: "Ahhh... but I have seen the holy grail! And it is painted RLM 76 all over with a large Mickey Mouse on the side, there is a familiar pilot in front of it and it has an Erla Haube!" You have all in it: Passion, people history, technical aspect, colours ... The funiest one for me! It's a good question, definitly. Let others continue. |
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What I'm doing: trying to piece together enough scattered fragments of information to produce a coherent narrative of whichever corner of aviation history intrigues me.
Because of: the mystique attaching to what, to someone brought up in 1950s Britain, was still "the other side." The war was every adult's frame of reference in conversation (everything was before, during or since the war) and there were bombsites all over town; I used to play in my grandparents' Anderson shelter. My uncles showed me their wartime scrapbooks and bomb-splinter collections. My Dad told me about when he was a cycle messenger in the Blitz and how (via a junior office job with the Air Ministry) he got flights in a Beaufighter and saw shot-up B-17s returning from a raid on the French Atlantic ports. |
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Hello to all members! I guess Franck (Ouidjat) answered it and got the point....
We are all linked together (from different nationalities, ages, professions, etc..) to Military and Aeronautical History... We do find on this Forum similars who share the same interests...on my particular case: Bomber and Coastal Command (PRU, etc...) activities....Of course..there are the Luftwaffe Specialists...the 8th AF specialists...etc...it has more to do with the field of interest you do have on WW2. People who frequent this Forum range from "Professional Writers" (already acclaimed writers who published several books of Reference) and "sprog writers" (like me and others..who are inspired by the first ones as well as inspired by older writers....(particularly for myself...I was inspired by Martin Middlebrook, Hector Bolitho, etc...)... Well I had to go now...but will have a go here later... Quite a nice thread indeed.... Yours Adriano Baumgartner |
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Then there are the 1%ers, the fringe element, those of us who swim against the tide, the outcasts, the non-Europeans. We are the tiny, tiny fraction of the whole who are not interested in the aircraft, their registration numbers (Werknummern) or their colors and markings. We might have been at one time back in the days of Royal Air Force Flying Review in the 50's and 60's, but after being awed by the pretty color profiles and the developmental history of the aircraft for a few years we moved on.
We, the outsiders, the outcasts, are interested in the organization and history of the Luftwaffe - not just the flying branches, but also the Flakwaffe, Luftnachrichtentruppe, Nachschubdienste and other components that comprised 95% of the Luftwaffe's manpower and 85% of its assets. We are also interested in the operations, the units, the officers, the airfields, the command and control, the strategic thinking and planning, and the air war over Europe in general. So there are a few of us who don't fit the mold and share the mainline interests here, Bronc, but only a few. Larry |
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An excellent question indeed.... Franck said it all, basically, and everybody will have his personal impetus. Here some elements for my personal drive...
It all started in my childhood, back in the roaring 60's, hiking with my father in the Swiss Alps to the spot he was in the morning of 13 July 1943, contemplating the twisted remains of Lancaster ED 531 PO-T, 467 RAAF Sqn, whilst a Swiss Army party removed the remains of the crew and started to clear up the crash site. He took pictures at that time, and as we were there in 1968, we still found odd bits and pieces from ED 531, including the flap indicator... http://www.467463raafsquadrons.com/T...ss_account.htm This moment was a fundamental one. My interest was continually fostered by the fact my dad was a meteorologist at the Swissair and this meant I've spent quite a lot of time with the flight crews, also in the cockpits of the Convair 440's and the Caravelles the company operated then. Some of them were former RAF "Heavies" pilots, and this brought near all their WWII histories , as translated and told by my dad. This kind of environment kept me going into a steady increase of literature and model building... With the passing of time, I "narrowed" down on the Luftwaffe, probably because having lost the war, it was less well documented especially so for the 1944 - 1945 period. I became specially interested with the planes which flew in this last year of war, as documentation about this period was rare and wildly faulty in the 60's; in the early 70's the first books conveying corrected informations began to show up and, since then, their flow brings an unending wealth of new and surprising information. Living in Switzerland and being not close to any important archive, I have to rely entirely on secondary sources. The value of forums like this one or LEMB, in English, or LBB in German, is thus immense for persons in the same position: here, noted aviation historians or archive buffs readily answer a wide variety of questions, most of them on the operational level, with primary sources at hand. So many unanswered demands were put here at rest... My wished for focus is currently the Bf 109 late variants: so many built in around 18 months (estimates are around 20'000 planes) and so few documented. Having grown into an archaeologist, and knowing what importance visual documentation has, I try to move ahead in my aim to establish an open and evolutive photo database, broken down by manufacturers, of those elusive late war Messerschmitt (currently only 1679 pics strong, and probably will never be over 3'000 strong). Much help come from people visiting this forum, and the project takes shape. As to the deeper background for my interest, it took me a full thirty years to finally understand why such an appeal for archaeology and the late war Luftwaffe: it was actually the strongest possible reaction against the inability of my mother to EVER talk to her only son about the horrors she had to endure as a teenager during the siege of Budapest in late 1944 and early 1945... Like many survivors, she just closed this part of her life for ever, not being able to cope with telling those harrowing times. Faced with this silence, my strive to bring again the Past nearer is such an evidence, isn't? Sincerely Marc |
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As already underlined, it is a fair question, and the fact that several of us felt the need to reply, means that we are aware that the bulk of us "hardcore" enthusiasts are by now an older generation and that the newer ones are often completely unaware of what we are speaking of, let alone understand and share our passion.
Like many of those writing and/or debating here, I started as a boy of the mid-'50s' growing up in the post-WW2 culture, more and more passionate on aviation and of those men who fought in the air like old knights, then followed the passion for modelism and (as happened probably to many of us old modelers) started to look for more reference and data to realize personal choices as individual aircraft of some ace and so on... Some of us began to realize that what had been written since and fed us was more than faulty and imprecise, so the research for data and info brought some of us to primary sources, wheter those being archives or veterans or both. For some, that was the turning point that lead to the choice of researching and - with some luck - being able to publish the results of the researches, in articles or/and books. What is important, though, is to remain subtly but persistently unsatisfied and looking for more, which in research is the fuel to most achievements, if these could be considered as such... Oh, one last thing: why the Germans and the Luftwaffe? Well, this delves somehow in psicology, but I was eased by the fact that my home country was a German ally in WW2 (much to German's dismay, I should add!), so researching about that was almost unavoidable. I however think that the allure of the "dark side" has a lot to it and the Germans certainly were masters of "bad ass design", which had a lot of fascination for the young boys in the '60s and '70s. Sorry to have been maybe a bit too lenghty, but the topic I guess deserved that. |
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Ah Ferdinando,
So true what you say about the knight like idealized vision of air war and the German "dark side"... Marc |
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[WIP] http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/...0124-05-45.jpg |
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For me - It has been a lifelong tie to aviation with particular focus on wartime airpower and its influence on world events. The specific focus on LW in ETO has been important in my latest project where I decided it was important to put units and real people in the fabric of historical air battles - on both sides -
My first book was far less comprehensive than my latest. The one I just shipped to Schiffer is Volume I of a two volume set taking the 355th FG from WWII to Vietnam, then from Vietnam through Afghanistan. |
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Like others here, the war was all I heard about growing up. Very little from my parents who spent the war in Germany in forced labor camps. In a nutshell, they wanted to be in a country where no one was shooting at them and no bombs were falling nearby. My father, who was a vet, prior to capture, and my mother, only wanted to raise a family, and we had a fine time growing up even though the Russians and Americans deployed ICBMs in 1959, quickly followed by warnings that nuclear destruction would rain down on the US at any time.
My interest began with seeing a book about German aircraft back in the 1960s, and I was stunned when I saw photos of the Me-262 and Me-163. The V-1 and V-2 were also quite impressive. Then I learned that German aircraft were painted in a variety of schemes and color combinations and carried unintelligible markings and emblems. As the years passed, my primary focus became the technology the Germans developed during the years 1933-1945, and the exploitation of said technology by the Americans, British and Russians. After the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, more documents came to light. And then the internet. Thanks to this site, LWAG and the LEMB, I was made aware of many, many books and publications that I would have missed otherwise. For me, posting eBay photos helps everyone, along with flight log books and some documents. I regularly look for new and upcoming books as well. So, for me, it is a treasure hunt. My primary interest is late-war Luftwaffe technology, and other German wartime technology. I'm finding more and more credible information and reports, and other information that ended up being published but little discussed until the past decade or so. I must admit, I'm the one looking for the fringe material - the sort of thing that people find uninteresting or too incredible or just unbelievable. And I'll just end there. Perhaps a poll would be useful. I am doing: 1) Research about about a particular squadron. 2) Research about a particular campaign or operation. 3) Research about a particular time period (like Larry Hickey). 4) Research about a particular bomber group. 5) Research that focuses on one or more pilots. 6) Research that focuses on the fate of a particular aircraft, or number of aircraft. 7) Aviation archaeology and searching crash sites. 8) Collecting new and interesting photos. 9) I specialize in emblems, including personal emblems and unusual markings and codes. 10) Camouflage. I'm on the hunt for that never before seen camouflage pattern and the identity of the aircraft/squadron that wore it. 11) I am working on a book or a few books. Please tell us more. 12) Other. Feel free to add to or amend the above list. Best, Ed |
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I am a very periferal figure on this discussion forum but the main protaganists have a wealth of knowledge and information on anything to do with the Luftwaffe. Most importantly, it is THE place to research the subject and to be honest, the dignity and manners of the people who frequent this board are the best around.
Regards, Andy |
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Andy,
I could not have said it better. The dignity and politeness of the people here truly warms my heart. As I'm sure everyone knows, too many internet forums are filled with unruly and rude people. That is why, today, I only have a handful of forums I visit, and a few where I rarely post due to the aggressive nature of the moderators and other posters. Regards, Ed |
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bregds SES |
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No, I'm not an expert - and what I do ? My interest in the Luftwaffe starts in my youth with the words of my father and what he told me about the Luftwaffe, a handfull of his pictures, a Josef Priller-book and a letter of his comrade. To find out the lost things about his military carrer was the cause to seek in forums like this for some help. So it became more and more information with the help of many great and adorable people, experts. With their, your help I found out nearly his complete military carrer and that´s not all - Ive found a lot of Luftwaffe knowledge, I've found a lot of int. friends here, the most important thing.
I would say that the history of Luftwaffe is sometimes like a giant puzzle and it's a great fun to share with others this puzzle. That's why I'm here - I can learn and it is a great pleasure to be here, even that I'm not an expert. Best regards - Rainer |
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Hi, guys...
I guess I have to admit to being a secretive 1% er also, as I was studying a coded plan of the radar and other Luftnachrichten installations in Denmark this evening. It popped out of a file in which it should not really be - and as several people have mentioned - the search for small 'treasure' in the fragmented spoils of the German war machine - adding a small piece to the puzzle is a major driving force for several members here. I would also like to underline that the fact that the members of this board try not only to be helpful to an extent beyond what can be expected in most cases, but also seem to be able to keep discussions contained on a polite level even when in total disagreement politically or otherwise is nothing short of impressive. Keep up the good work all - the only thing I really regret is that I have limited time to contribute these days. Regards, Andreas B |
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Dear Bronc,
I, too, have an interest somewhat afield from the mainstream of this site. Who shot down whom is not of particular interest to me. My focus over the last 55+ years has been on the twin-jet Me 262, with a slight branching out to other advanced Luftwaffe types. I have an interest in the development history, production, and the physical construction of the aircraft. Of these, production was affected by the air and land wars, so I have nudged a bit into the circumstances under which Germany found itself. WW II is a particularly fascinating period and there was an extreme amount of drama packed into a very few years. You mention that you are tasked with writing a screenplay for a major motion picture company, the subject to be the transition year of 1943. I would hope that you have obtained a selection of good histories of the period to get as good an overview as possible. This is essential to be sure that what you write carries the correct message. I can cite 2 movies, 1 excellent and 1 incredibly bad, for you to review. The good movie is Command Decision, a fictional, but well written and well acted account of attempts to knock out a specific factory producing the Focke-Schmidt, a mythical name for the Me 262. The incredibly bad movie, Red Tails, is of much more recent vintage. My lady friend wanted to watch this and so we rented it. It was very painful to watch. The acting, writing, and completely messed up history represent a classic case of how not to do a WW II era movie. Most of the aerial scenes showing aircraft, if not all, were computer generated, and here, too, these images were third rate. I would recommend viewing both to steer you away from schlock toward quality. While there is a large warbirds community restoring WW II aircraft, there are still a limited number of aircraft available to possibly be used in a WW II movie. There are a fair number of P-51's available, but most of these are the D model. There are a few BF 109's available, as well as Spanish built versions called Buchons, although these are distinctly different from the German Bf 109's and I cringe when I see them used in WW II movies. There are now a number of new build Fw 190's and 3 new build Me 262's, although the latter wouldn't be of any interest for a 1943 era movie. There are some B-17's and B-24's, although I'm not sure of how many. However, for massed aircraft, I think you'll be stuck using computer graphics. CG can produce really excellent results if time and care is taken in generating them. Regards, Richard |
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Hi, Bronc... and all other contributors :).
I like the question, and really like the varied answers. For me, a child of the early Sixties, I grew up with my father making model aircraft of his point of reference, World War 1. I followed that example, but this time looking back to World War 2. I saw some images in a book showing the 'Humbie Heinkel' (Humbie is a small hamlet near Dalkeith, which is near Edinburgh, Scotland) and immediately fell under the spell of this iconic machine. I began to read about the Heinkel and then other German aircraft, but much of the literature still had information originating from wartime, and everything was described as 'inferior' compared to British aircraft... not surprising, I dare say. However, this in turn triggered a curiosity in me... surely not all German aircraft could be as bad to fly and operate as they were being described? I also marvelled at the many and varied colour schemes, and colour combinations are quite often still a trigger for me to build and finish a model in a given pattern or with particular markings. Also, modelling was one of the few mechanisms by which I could see and fully visualise a German aircraft - other than, say, a Messerschmitt Bf109 or Ju87 - at that early age... Fw200s, He177s and undoubtedly Bv141s all became wonderful reality through modelmaking. Although I did actually make kits of many nationalities' aircraft, I eventually gave in completely to my interest in the Luftwaffe. I have been an avid modeller for 40+ years now and although never considering myself an expert, I occasionally chip in here with some information, or an image or two. The community here on TOCH has always been helpful, both to myself and others and I also believe it to be a courteous place to interact and learn with others. I have attended one event with Luftwaffe veterans present, and travelled abroad on occasion, both as a direct result of being a member of this forum. TOCH is a place where many come and contribute and/or learn to varying degrees, but it is never a dull place to visit. I hope it will remain as helpful, friendly and informative in the future. Warmest regards to all, Paul |
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Somehow a lot of us had relatives involved ín all these WW2 circumstances or
we are moved by single fates of crashed/KIA/MIA aircrews. bye, good luck to all, excellent and most helpful forum this, truly more than one could wish for, FrankieS |
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For my part, my grandfather was my kick start. Although he passed on when I was 4, I still vividly recall his association with aircraft. As a WWI vet, he entered the Polish Air Force in 1924, then the French in 1940, and finally the RAF. I started building model aircraft with my father when I was 5 or 6, and am now slowly amassing a large collection of kits. The curse is that when one is young, time is endless and money is tight, and the reverse is true as one ages. My area of model kit interest is 1918-1945, specializing in eastern Europe. I also collect on-line photos of these aircraft. I am also researching my grandfather as part of a larger "family history" dsocument.
Vic |
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we are friendly.an Ignorant to some. Sharon |
In General, What is Everyone Doing?
Johannes has been helping me (offlist) on Experten kills and claims. The idea is to create a near historically accurate screenplay that has none of the pseudo-drama that was featured in a recently released WWII aviation film.
The other question I have: Are steps being taken to protect, back up and preserve the archives of 12 O'Clock High!? The archives are a world-class, historically relevant, resource. It would be a tragedy if they were lost due to a computer memory failure or hacking. Bronc |
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Oops, good thinking Bronc! Ruy, your thoughts on those possible threats?
Cheers Marc |
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Dear Bronc,
Before 2004, the very thing you worry about was a constant occurrence. The server Ruy used limited the number of postings in a forum such that, about every 5-6 weeks, that great bit of info would go off to never never land. I believe one of our members has actually saved the records from before 2004. As for myself, with Ruy's permission, I transferred reference material to my Luftwaffe Archives Group (LWAG - www.lwag.com) website. In 2004, Ruy was able to find a server service without the entry number limitation. So, everything you see here dates back to then. I also found it generally unnecessary, due to the changed circumstances, to do much further transferring to the LWAG site. Both sites are still active today. I presume that TOCH! is protected with backups. The bigger question is what happens to either site when the administrators are no longer around. Finally, in regard to the refined decorum found on both sites, this was not at all by accident. If you go back some 10 years you would have found some doozie of flame wars on TOCH!. With constant pressure from Ruy and the membership, these were eventually extinguished. As for the LWAG site, the rules were set in stone at the start, so flame wars never developed and hopefully never will, as these can be a big headache for a site administrator. Regards, Richard |
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It all started with an Airfix Spitfire model and many years later a visit to the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum in Southern England. Here, to my surprise, I encountered a Spitfire replica with a Danish flag on the side of the fuselage and a list of Danish volunteer pilots in RAF. This was at the time, 12-14 years ago news for me.
I started researching for the construction of a model of a 'Danish' Spitfire. I have been researching ever since... A few years later I participated in a conference (with other members of this forum) at which the idea of using a database-driven approach of storing and sharing my research developed. This eventually led to my website danishww2pilots.dk, and en route to invaluable help from this and other forums. Some of this was specific pieces of information, some generel tips on reseach issues, archives etc. And 'suddenly' I find myself being asked questions within my niche... As I am only an amateur historian, I am trying to find the time to enlighten my countrymen about the Danish contribution to the air war through the website, articles and, hopefully one day, the book projects in my drawer. Had not happened without help from many here. Thank you! Mikkel |
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Hi!
Please don't get me wrong... But I am just a Fanatic ;). Otherwise I'm a mechanical designer, a freelancer :) Regards! F. |
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Still enjoying making skins for my favorite flight sim game, IL2. I took some flak on another website when I said I'm researching for game skins..
"this is not a silly game this is a site for serious researchers". Well I have to say some people dedicated to those flight sims, are some of the most serious reasearchers I've ever had the pleasure of talking with. Mountains of data.. historical facts in regards to campaigns, colours, flight data.. mind boggling! http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/...ps70440dca.jpg |
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Hi,
I guess my interest also started with the Luftwaffe fighter aircraft, but since I am also interested in the history of air warfare it snowballed. I slowly discovered, that much of what had been written up till the 1970 - 1980 time-frame was not quite correct (to put it politely). Photos of late Bf109 were incorrectly captioned and nowhere could a correct description of a Bf109K be found. Also most writers focused on aircraft types and unit histories, which valuable as they are, do not give a consolidated picture at the operational level. I got fascinated by the control and reporting system developed by the Luftwaffe and the multitude of radar systems (no radar was not invented by Watson-Watt), and realized that there were still lots of unpublished material out there. This lead to an interest in Luftwaffe fighters command facilities, which seems to have been a totally ignored subject - even amongst the bunker freaks, and an interest in the development of the fighter command organization. This in turn lead to an interest in all types of Luftwaffe infrastructure. The result was three books and my WEB-site www.gyges.dk But without the Internet and e-mail and a LOT of help from a very large number of helpful and generous friends I would be as ignorant as I were back in the eighties. Kind regards SES |
In General, What is Everyone Doing?
For myself, it is gleaning as much information regarding personnel, units and aircraft directly associated with Luftwaffe documents groupings I have purchased for my collection.
I never cease to be amazed at the level of knowledge which is contained within the membership base here, and I have been able to piece together some very detailed research projects against simple award documents as a result. Regards Richard. |
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In general, I build 1/48 scale models of WWII Luftwaffe and RAF aircraft and try to make them as accurate and detailed as possible. My Me262 collection is up to 20 examples, and I started a FW190D and Ta152 collection earlier this year. It's been a bit of frenzy with 4 planes already in the hangar and one in the painting booth. In my research, I try to ID the unit and the operational history in addition to finding the precise paint schemes and markings.
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SES:
Most interesting web site. Thanks for posting. The subject is certainly one that needs exploring. Since you have done "after" shots, have you ever considered working with Ramsey at "After The Battle" about a series or a composite book? Might give you a wider readership. |
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Hi John,
Sounds like an excellent idea worth considering. Having said that both my Vol 2 and 3 are actually "battlefield guides": http://www.gyges.dk/Gyges%20Pub%20Comp.htm bregds SES |
Re: In General, What is Everyone Doing?
Hello all --
I’m a bit slow to respond to this thread, bu it’s proved so popular that it’s almost a poll of the entire active membership. My background is similar to most of the old timers here -- a general interest in WW II and WW II aviation since childhood, focusing in on the Luftwaffe just because so much bad information was being published and republished in the 1960s and 1970s. Much of this, I found out later, was NATO officer’s club bar stories and Cold War propaganda. I decided to look for the “truth” on my own, and long before the internet was able to track down a number of veterans and tap into the network of active enthusiasts, mostly on the continent, but a few in the US (remember the Luftwaffe Circle?) I decided to turn my material into a book, got lucky and got a good contract, and have now published seven books on Luftwaffe topics – I have material for an eighth, but it’s a long time off. It’s already been pointed out that TOCH is noteworthy for the mutual respect and helpful attitudes shown by its members. The “Flamers” were eliminated almost a decade ago, due the efforts of Ruy, John Beaman, and others. If the questions seem awfully specific -- rivet counts, paint shades, etc. -- it’s because the more general topics have been covered many times over the years, and also because young modelers probably make up the majority of the current membership. But this old timer hopes that this forum will help these youngsters develop an interest in the broader aspects of WW II history. If there’s a battle that interests you, but that you just can’t untangle, a question can easily draw a dozen or more answers – nearly all of them good. Horrido! Don Caldwell |
Re: In General, What is Everyone Doing?
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Re: In General, What is Everyone Doing?
For me, to date it has been a resource to research information on specific artifacts i have in my collection.
So thank you to everyone in replying to my few questions. *edit* I do try and do as much research first as i can myself, my library is slowly growing. |
Re: In General, What is Everyone Doing?
Hello,
Looking at my new Revell 1/32 G-10 Erla and wondering witch individ i will do. Cheers Boris |
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