Hungarian Fighters on July 26 1944

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

Thanks Csaba

I notice you are unwilling to list Molnars complete scoreboard...

Glad you consider yourself to be professional and that you have and obviously continue to publish various items. Sorry to notice that none of them are in a, for me, readable language...

I am certainly not qualified to discuss the Osprey book series and their validity, but I find it strange you dismiss them out of hand as more or less rubbish. Badly edited? Why do you expect a British editor to be an expert on any Eastern European aviation? Bad English? Possibly, I have not read them in such context and would have to re-read them again to state an opinion! Scratching the surface? Of course! The layout of the series prohibit all kind of deeper text material and to my way of thinking is quite a good test of an author's qualifications to reach the essentials and, if you excuse me, cut the crap!

I also notice Denes Bernad did the book on Rumanian aces. I usually find Denes quite reliable, so what is wrong with his ace book?

I am also interested in what other material I should chose, in your opinion, to get better details than the Osprey books on Eastern European aces. I know that Denes seems to be a language wizard, and perhaps so are you, but unfortunately I DON'T belong to that group. I control English pretty accurately and I can read German and partly French so I can stumble myself through a text which is not too flowered with general words. But I cannot and will not be able to read ANY language beyond that. I think it also goes for most of the enthusiasts on this site as well, of course depending from which country you originate...

Cheers
Stig

Stig,

I'm attaching the firs page of my Molnár bio from that book, including his known claims.

Regarding the Osprey books: check the book section for the mentioned topic, it is not their post. However, confusing Budapest with Bucharest (which I mentioned above) is not a grammar error (and was in a native English speaker author's work, Robert F. Dorr's B-24 Liberator units of the Fiteenth Air Force - I have some other examples as well, of course) I have never stated anything wrong about the Romanian aces book (or about the knowledge of György Punka: I know him well, I respect deeply his knowledge and I'm sure, that most of the errors in his Osprey book was produced by the publisher, not by him).
But again: it is not an Osprey book topic (I just written my opinion about their average quality, not revealed any holy truths or whatever else).

I do not recommend you any books, of course, since I know deeply just some parts of the history (aviation and general). However, it is a basic truth: if you are interested in deeply a foreign air force, you must know the language (at least, in basic level)