[Håkan]

I’ve spent the Eastern holiday by reading part 2 of “From Barbarossa to Odessa”.

The book covers the aerial operations from August to October 1941 in the Odessa area and end with the evacuation/capture of this town. Since the last three months of this operation mostly was an affaire for the Soviet and Rumanian Air Forces, the focus is one these but the book also includes much of Luftwaffe operations in the area and some Hungarian and Slovak operations. As with part 1, it is a day-by-day account and the authors has again done an excellent work! Once again I marvel about the rich variety of aircraft types used by the Rumanian Air Force. In October, they had less than 100 serviceable aircraft in the area (including non-combat types). Of these there were five different types of fighters – Bf109Es, I.A.R. 80s, PZL 11/24s and Hurricanes! And this with no immediate repair facilities! There is even one type used by both sides since the VVS operated a few ex-Yugoslavian S.79s while the Rumanian Air Force operated the J.R.S. 79B Rumanian produced variant.
My only objection to part 1 was the lack of an index but this has been corrected in part 2, which includes an index for both parts! The only minor objection I have to this volume is the lack of good maps of the whole area of operations.
Highly recommended books with a lasting value as a reference books!

Best wishes/Håkan