[Doug Stankey]

Having just completed digesting the "Deutsche Luftwaffe Losses & Claims" Part 28 by Michael Balss, I feel the need to give it an evaluation.

While this is a very spare looking production, it does concentrate on what is important; the essential facts regarding Losses and Claims. Balss has attempted to gather what data he could find from all sources and it appears that he has done a reasonable job of that for this difficult period. He covers all unit types (JG, KG, St.G., Aufkl.Gr., TG, etc.) but deals only in flying units. No Flak, Ln. or other.

Whether or not it is "worth it" at $(Can) 65 per volume (from Amazon) is debatable depending on your needs. But I feel that it is worthwhile for us if only because it helps fill many gaps and because this is a very limited production run of a specialized work.

The Losses are most informative, attempting to cover all the losses. This has cleared up a number of mysteries. It has added some "new guys", but not a huge number.
The Claims data has also yielded some new guys, but not many. This area is dull by comparison to the Losses data.

Regarding missing names - there are few missing first names - presumeably due to source data limitations. Coverage of this series apparently skips prewar period. While I am sure that there numerous deficiencies, these appear to be quite minor in the grand scheme.

My overall impression is essentially positive, but naturally one wishes for more detail, but this would be carping in view of the massive effort to compile all this. I think that Michael Balss has done the Lutwaffe enthusiast community a great service and deserves a thank you.

Doug Stankey,
Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries editor.