[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Larry,

I was born considerably before 1980 and have all 10 volumes (1960-1968). At the time, I'd say it was a benchmark series of books. William Green then went on to write Warplanes of the Third Reich (1970), which, in its time, was also a benchmark book. Other compendiums that came out around this time were J. R. Smith's and Antony Kay's German Aircraft of the Second World War (1972), Aireview's German Military Aircraft in the Second World War (1959), and Heinz J. Nowarra's and Karlheinz Kens' Die deutschen Flugzeuge 1933-1945 (1961, with a Nachtrag by Nowarra alone in 1964). As far as I know, these were the major compendiums of the times. Green, Smith, and Nowarra were prolific writers of their time. Smith teamed up with Eddie J. Creek dating back to at least Archiv (Gruppe 66) (1966) for a long and distinguished career in Luftwaffe aviation history writing.

Green also wrote the Famous Fighters and Famous Bombers 2-volume sets (1957-1962), but these were restricted to the most well-known aircraft. In his day, Green was considered one of the foremost authorities on the subject of German WW II aircraft.

The tendency since has been in the area of specialization, concentrating on single aircraft types, manufacturers, units, camouflages, cockpits, specialized aircraft fields, such as the jet and rocket aircraft, etc. Yes, periodically someone will whip out a supposed compendium, but generally these are slapdash and meant for the complete novice.

Why the specialization? Because more and more information has become available over the years to do more complete studies.

Regards,
Richard