What is your favourite REAL WW2 aviation book?

[NickM]

So it would appear==I gotta ad that IF it wasn't for the OG JG26 unit history, and it's incredible bibliography, I would have never heard of Christopher Shores, Hans Ring, Jochen Prien and the rest of the excellent writers of the aviation history both past and present that I enjoy so much.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

Not sure of everyone's age but since I am from a 1951 generation I still remember back in 1969 (?) or so
the immense thrill when I bought both Mason's Battle over Britain and Chris Shores Fighters over the Desert.
Cheers
Stig

I couldn't afford Battle Over Britain when it came out (in my last year at school), just look at it in the bookshop and dream, but I did buy it years later. The first one I bought after starting work was Alfred Price's Battle Over the Reich and I was hesitant about the price (£4) but my Dad said, "Get it, that's what you're working for" — excellent advice!

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Good evening to all.
I am particularly fond of biographies, either from the WW2 veterans themselves or from Historians.
Middlebrook, Bowyer, Barbas, Aders and others have inspired me since a teen. I take my hat to Winston Ramsey's "Battle of Britain" then and now and for other incredible researches and Historians that have arisen and taken the torch from the old "Lighthouses" who gave us "Light" to follow. I have read quite a number of you guys and I do take my hat too for your lovely works.
Adriano (a sprog writer)

[Laurent Rizzotti]

For me the best original research work in these last years is the series Nachjagd Combat Archive by Theo Boiten, using a wide variety of sources to provide a very comprehensive presentation of the night battle over Europe, from global strategic and technological layers to first-person views.

Chris' "Luftwaffe Fighter-Bombers over Britain" is a solide second, especially as it covers for me every side of this air campaign, using sources from Luftwaffe, RAF... and the "ground", I mean the targets. In most WWII aviation books, this latter part is either missing or reduced to a minimum, and I think it is an issue. Most of the WWII missions were done to either hit a ground or naval target, or protect them, and so the results of these attacks should be taken in account to see the efficiency of the air actions, while in may case only the air kills are listed. I was for example very disappointed that in 2nd TAF series by Shores and co, really little was said about the main activity of 2nd TAF, ground attack.

I would also recommend a French bookwriter, Bertrand Baeza, for all his books and works on the Pacific War. He is using Japanese and US sources to provide both sides of the action, and is covering in daily format the campaigns I have not seen described in such details elsewhere, especially in the Batailles Aériennes magazine about the B-29 raids on Japan (8 volumes) or the Mariana campaign (7 volumes).

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Well, I´d like to mention a few books that have a special place in my not so large library.

Senta a Pua! from Brazilian pilot Rui Moreira Lima, wich flew the P-47 in Italy as a member from the First Brazilian Fighter Group.

Força Aérea Brasileira 1941-1961 Como eu a Vi. Fascinating history from Eduardo Magalhães Motta that flew in the Aviação Militar (Brazilian Army) and Brazilian Air Force.

Sombras da Noite from German pilot Martin Drewes.

The signed copies from their books are very special to me since I could talk with them several times.

Not to forgot the 3 book set written by Adriano Baumgartner about Brazilian pilot Cosme Lockwood Gomm!

[Alfred.MONZAT]

JG 300 books by Jean-Yves Lorant & Richard Goya, I bought them with my first salary it's not they were up to my expectations, they defined them for the rest of my life and ever again I've tried to feel the same as reading them. So in term of unit history a name come immediately into mind: Erik Mombeeck, particularly with his JG 4 books I not only bought for me but another set for my best friend. And I should also mention Christian-Jacques Ehrengardt which really fuelled my passion, first with a book then with his magazine, Aéro Journal.

[Dénes Bernád]

The very first aviation related "serious" book I managed to purchase was William Green's The Warplanes of the Third Reich. I had to order it from abroad, from Hungary, in 1991, which was a very "brave" (and costly) act back then, right after Communism had collapsed. When I received it, large format, almost 700 pages, I was amazed how much information can be found about German aircraft, including some obscure ones I never heard of. To me - at that point - it was the "bible". It was only years later, more precisely in 1995, when I dove in deeper into the topic of the Heinkel He 112 fighter (I published my very first English language book about) that I realised that many (most? of the) information in the book is false, or "unproven", let's say. Nevertheless, it's still on my bookshelf, and I do flick through it from time to time.