The Big Show-Unabridged--Comments?

[kaki3152]

Found a new edition of the "The Big Show" by P. Clostermann labelled complete and unabridged online and decided to buy it. After re-reading this book for probably the 20th time, I have to say as aviation literature,it ranks among the best ever written. The new eddition now includes postwar comments made by Clostermann and old excised passages. Additional new photos also help round out the book. One intriguing guncamera sequence is on the dusk jacket and shows a FW-190 (its hard to tell; the picture is small) under attack.

Comments anyone?

Carlos

[Jim Oxley]

I bought my first copy (paperback) of this book back in 1965. It was a Corgi edition, and on the front cover it showed Clo Clo's J-FE Tempest flying low over snow covered terrain and a train that has burst into flames.

Luv the book. I've read it so often that the spine is seriously wrinkled - and almost anal in my care for books. So when it was reprinted by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2004 as complete and unabridged I snapped up a copy straight away. The extra material is truly fascinating - amazing what had been cut out back in 1951 because of paper shortages.

IMHO definitely one of the very best on combat flying in WWII. In fact I rank it as one of the best three; the other two being Samurai by Saburo Sakai, and Blenheim by Theo Boiten. With Fighter Pilot by Paul Richey a close fourth.

[nick de carteret]

Wasn't Clostermann renouned as a bit of a porkie teller regarding his own exploits or have I got the wrong fellow?

[JeffK]

Originally Posted by nick de carteret

Wasn't Clostermann renouned as a bit of a porkie teller regarding his own exploits or have I got the wrong fellow?

No you are correct, while I doubt accuracy of Clostermann, it doesnt take away from the fact that its an exiting book.

[nick de carteret]

Finally got around to reading 'The Big Show' and whilst agreeing that it is a well written and exciting pilot journal, one has to be truely amazed at some of the laughable inaccuracies that it contains. The most blatant would be the Chapter on Nowotny, which has him shot down and killed by Closterman's section in March '45 while in command of JG 52, with a photo purporting to be him, which is actually Max-Hellmuth Ostermann!

I presume with the book being written so soon after the war that very little research had been done but the talk of dogfighting with great hordes of Ta 152s in July 1944 really stretches the bounds of the book's credibility.

[George Hopp]

Well, since it is noted that the book was initially written based on Clostermann's journals, inaccuracies, such as a/c types, can easily crawl in because what he knew, and so what he wrote, was based on the quality of intelligence he had at the time. Remember the RAF shooting down all those He 112s during the Battle of Britain, or spotting 109s over the Far East in 1941? And, as for giving himself the benefit of the doubt in his writings -- gee, tell me someone who doesn't.

I also have enjoyed the book many times, my first one being a Penguin paperbook of 1958, simply a reprint of the 1951 version. More than any other aviation works I have read, Clostermann makes me feel like I am in the cockpit scared and sweating right along with him.

[Christer Bergström]

Since I have written the biographies on Hermann Graf (published in August 2003) and on Walter Schuck (due to be published in 2006), it pleases me to find that in this unabriged edition of "The Big Show" (published in 2004, the foreword dated September 2003):

a) "Major Graff" is finally "removed", and

b) Pierre Clostermann's actual meeting with Walter Schuck is mentioned

After all these years with the "Major Graff" story, leading to the almost classical question "was Hermann Graf shot down by Martell" (a subject which is closely examined in the Graf & Grislawski books), Clostermann now finally - on page 50 in the 2004 unabrdiged edition, concludes:

"Later we learned that it was not Graff. . ."

And about Schuck. . . Well, he isn't mantioned by name, but at least due to Schuck himself, it was Walter Schuck. I'll tell you on which page later. . .

[Brian]

Hi guys
I hope I am not putting the cat amongst the pigeons but I don't think that Clostermann was awarded the DSO, which he was photographed wearing! And he certainly didn't get the 33 kills painted on the side of his Tempest! However, I am first to admit that I haven't read the new version of the book.

[Graham Boak]

I think people should be very careful about what is said on this subject. In recent years Clostermann has won a court case in France over noted aircraft historian Christian Ehrengard, whose comments were significantly less inflammatory than those above!

It would be a shame to find similar action taken against this board.

[Brian]

Thanks Graham - warning heeded! I know Chris E and will endeavour to find out what he stated. Incidentally, information regarding his claims is extracted from 'Aces High'.

Cheers
Brian