[Lennart Andersson]

I think that the discussion is drifting away here - even if linguistics is one of my interests. I have just received the book and it LOOKS and feels very nice. I have not read it yet, but when just looking at the first chapters I was much disappointed by the mishmash of (old) photos of Junkers (and other types) without any apparent connection and little relation to the subject. When I read Peters thorough list of just a few of the mistakes I started to regret that I spent my money.

Right at this moment I happen to read the following sentence on page 11: “Trainers and lightplanes built during this period included the 1923 T 23 (Trainer 23), 1925 T 26 and 1930 A 50 (Austauchflugzeug 50 - Exchange aircraft 50), i e, an aircraft which could exchange roles, for example, commercial to military).”

Excuse me, but this is rubbish. Why would Junkers use the English word for trainer and the thing with the exchange aircraft is pure fabrication/fiction.

And then it goes on in the following column: I read that the J 22 was built at Fili, which it was not, even if that was the plan, but the J 20 was (not mentioned), and then the “A 25 and A 35” were built there “in small numbers”. The J 25 (H 25) was just a project and neither this, nor the A 35 were built at Fili.

When a book on an historical subject is published the author has a responsibility. It should be as close to the truth as possible. If there are thing you do not know, then that should be stated. If there are things that are doubtful, that should be stated. Historical books must be based on archive research and there is no way around that. That costs money, time and patience (and some language skills). Still, you always have to use some information from published sources, but you have to check thoroughly if the literature and/or webpages that you use are reliable or not (You will still end up with some “facts” that later prove to be wrong in your text).

Of course, everyone is free to write whatever he wants to, but the problem with books on German aviation is that certain authors (there are both the German and the English-speaking kind) have flooded the market with books that have created a “thousand lies” that are almost impossible to get rid of once they have become established. We should do everything to counter this. German aviation history need well-researched and thorough articles and books that tell the truth and does away with all the myths. Now and then this happens in Germany, mostly in the form of articles, but unfortunately not much of this trickles down to the outside world. Often the true facts are there, but instead the myths are reiterated.

I will now read the book with a generous mind, but judging from what I have already seen I am afraid that this book will end up on the Nowarra shelf…

Lennart A