JG 2 The Final Chapter

[Kaczmarek]

According to Eric a german edition will not be released before 2024.

René

[Erik Mombeeck]

Hello,

Thank you for this thread and your interest in the final volume of a chronicle that has kept me busy for decades. It has given me enormous pleasure to talk to these veterans, which has enabled me to put the human aspect before figures and statistics in all my books.

Well, René, my translator and, above all, friend of more than 30 years, Hans Berger, former Stk. of JG 1, will be a hundred years old next October. Although he's doing well, I can't see myself burdening him again with a long translation (there's a lot of text again in this latest volume). So I'd rather not talk too much about a German version at this stage.

As for Jukka's kind words ("disastrous marketing"), I must confess that I don't care about marketing. I wrote these books for pleasure and not to gain anything from them. I'm happy to produce them first in my mother language because I love writing and reading in French. And if Hans translated them into German, it was so that the veterans and families I contacted could read the results of my lengthy research: the description of a tragic time and a tragic circumstance that cost so many young and promising lives.

So I have no plan of producing an English version of this chronicle. In any case, very few members of this forum purchased the first volume in English and it seems to me that those who wish to deepen their knowledge of the Luftwaffe history cannot afford to miss out on learning German.

As I write in the epilogue to this latest volume, I've done what I could with what little I had and I'll be relieved to discover my latest 'big book' even though I'll probably never read it.

Best regards
Erik

[leonventer]

Hi Erik,

Thanks for your post -- very enlightening. I greatly appreciate all the research and writing you've done, and I admire the spirit in which you did it. Performing such a monumental labor of love is something the Jukkas of this world will never understand, so you needn't pay them any mind.

I have the German and English editions of every one of your publications, so I'm fervently hoping that the final JG 2 volume will eventually be published in German, but if not, I'll gladly get the French edition. (Just a thought: If Herr Berger is no longer able to do the translation, could someone like Neil Page do it instead?)

Thanks again and best wishes,
Leon Venter

[FalkeEins]

Originally Posted by leonventer

(Just a thought: If Herr Berger is no longer able to do the translation, could someone like Neil Page do it instead?)

..errr..nice idea. But decent translators only work into their own language. Not even 'true' bilinguals - which I am not - can ever 'master' the language like a native speaker (..although some here do a pretty good job). Plus I doubt I'd ever get asked. I actually translated Vol II into English - but nothing happened. Congratulations to Erik for completing this mammoth work.

[Erik Mombeeck]

Hello,
thank you for your reactions.
Unfortunately, in spite of the generous support of Neil for the translation, I don't have the resources to tackle the English-speaking market, and the lack of sufficient response to volume 1 of the JG 2 Chronicle in English confirmed this. So the only possible solution is for a publisher doing the job, or to find a wealthy patron😀.

The German series has one more volume than the French one. There are two reasons for this: Goethe's language takes up more space than Molière's. But above all: since the German version is usually published a year later, there is time to make new discoveries. This was the case, for example, with the 1940-1941 period, when I got in the hand so many beautiful "new" photos that I simply had to use them. So the first two volumes in French were published in three volumes in German.
Best regards
Erik

[MW Giles]

Erik

Normally I would have snapped up the english version of the book

However I already had the french version sitting on my shelf and could not justify in effect buying the same book twice.

Your sales of the french version were boosted by monoglots like me that end up looking at the pictures

Martin

[Milos Gazdic]

Originally Posted by Erik Mombeeck

The German series has one more volume than the French one. There are two reasons for this: Goethe's language takes up more space than Molière's. But above all: since the German version is usually published a year later, there is time to make new discoveries. This was the case, for example, with the 1940-1941 period, when I got in the hand so many beautiful "new" photos that I simply had to use them. So the first two volumes in French were published in three volumes in German.

Hello Eric,
I fully understand that the German edition will have more volumes. I was just wondering if you will be publishing the 7th volume (covering 1945) in German, too? Or only the French version will be available?

[taitbb]

Thank you Erik. Still hopeful, but I understand. Thank you for the all the works to date regardless of the language.

Originally Posted by Erik Mombeeck

Hello,

Thank you for this thread and your interest in the final volume of a chronicle that has kept me busy for decades. It has given me enormous pleasure to talk to these veterans, which has enabled me to put the human aspect before figures and statistics in all my books.

Well, René, my translator and, above all, friend of more than 30 years, Hans Berger, former Stk. of JG 1, will be a hundred years old next October. Although he's doing well, I can't see myself burdening him again with a long translation (there's a lot of text again in this latest volume). So I'd rather not talk too much about a German version at this stage.

As for Jukka's kind words ("disastrous marketing"), I must confess that I don't care about marketing. I wrote these books for pleasure and not to gain anything from them. I'm happy to produce them first in my mother language because I love writing and reading in French. And if Hans translated them into German, it was so that the veterans and families I contacted could read the results of my lengthy research: the description of a tragic time and a tragic circumstance that cost so many young and promising lives.

So I have no plan of producing an English version of this chronicle. In any case, very few members of this forum purchased the first volume in English and it seems to me that those who wish to deepen their knowledge of the Luftwaffe history cannot afford to miss out on learning German.

As I write in the epilogue to this latest volume, I've done what I could with what little I had and I'll be relieved to discover my latest 'big book' even though I'll probably never read it.

Best regards
Erik