Barbas and Die Geschichte des ... Jagdgeschwaders 52

[Frank Olynyk]

The inability to read German should not really be an issue in deciding to purchase Barnd Barbas' Die Geschichte der II. Gruppe des Jagdgeschwaders 52. The book is A4 size with 379 pages. It is organized as follows:

page 1: half title page
page 2: copyright page
page 3: title page
page 4: Acknowledgements
page 5-6: Forward
page 7: dedication
page 8-9 table of contents
page 10: blank
page 11: Establishment
page 12-25: photographs
page 26-41: Operations in the West 1939-41
page 42-75: photographs
page 76-84: Russia, 1941
page 85-100: photographs
page 101-114: Russia, 1942-Jan 1943
page 115-123: Photographs
page 124-135: Russia 1943
page 136-151: Photographs
page 152-175: operations in the East, 1944
page 176-193: Photographs
page 194-204: operations in the East, 1945
page 205-228: photographs
page 229-234: list of pilots. Column titles are Name, Vorname; Rang; Staffel; Weitere Staffel/Einheit; Abschüsse JG 52; Gesamt; Schicksal
page 235-264: photographs
page 265-270, ground personel. Column titles are Name, Vorname; Rang; Einheit; Funktion; Schicksal
page 271-284: photographs
page 285: Gruppenkommandeure II /JG 52
page 286: Staffelkapitäne
page 287: Die Ritterkreuzträger der II / JG 52
page 288: Die Träger des Deutschen Kreuzes in Gold der II / JG 52
page 289-290: Die Flugplätze der II / JG 52
page 291-297: maps by Ulf Balke showing movements by II / JG 52. These are very good. I do not know how Ulf prepares these maps (he also does the maps for Prien's Jagdfliegerverbände series) but he is to be congratulated for his good work.
page 298-326: Verluste
page 327-372: Abschüsse
page 373: Sources, unpublished
page 374-375: Sources, published
page 376-377: abreviations
page 378-379: blank

So there are basically 87 pages of text, 175 pages of photographs, 94 pages of lists, 7 pages of maps, 11 pages with minor German content, 3 pages of German text, and 3 blank pages (which adds up to 380, so I can't count). All photos are captioned, requiring only modest German, if that, to determine the person or aircraft in the picture. So just over 20% of the book needs decent German. The rest could be handled by someone who knew only Chinese and could read Latin letters.

Frank.