Luctwaffe Eagle

[John Beaman]

I am curious if anyone has read Schuck's book, Luftwaffe Eagle, or seen any reviews? It seems curious that I've not seen any commentary for a book that was much anticipated. Perhaps I just missed them.




I have just finished reading the book, Luftwaffe Eagle, (Hikoki). It is nice to have a memoir from, I suppose, the highest scoring Experten still alive. Some comments:

• In the appendices, it is stated that Schuck does not have his Flugbuchs or performance books, and his victory lists were gotten off the web (presumably Tony Wood, et al). So, I am surprised at the depth detail he relates to many of the combats and claims. It is wonderful to have that depth of detail, but how? How did he get this sort of detail? Diaries? I am curious.
• Over the years, it has always been claimed that although the Jadgflieger slaughtered USSR planes during 1941-43, by 1944 there were better aircraft and pilots and the VVS opponents were far better, maybe even "equal" to the average Luftwaffe pilot. This is apparently not true as Schuck and his fellow pilots claimed lots of victories during 1944, right up until the time he left JG 5 in the late fall of 1944. Even discounting, say 33% as overclaiming, they did lots of "slaughter" with VVS units based in the Murmansk and other areas.
• While the text is excellent, I cannot say the same for the graphics design selection of photos. I assume from the lack of, that there were few photos of Schuck's machines. That's OK, but the insertion of irrelevant, useless, previously seen photos is not good. For example, on page 164, a photo of "dusk over Petsamo" with what appears to be those nose of a 109E or 110 engine. The context is the fall of 1944. Why is that there? It may be "arty", but its not very useful. There are lots of Me 262 photos that bear no relevancy to the text and have been seen many times. This may have been done by the publisher's "art director", because of an anticipated "general" audience. I sincerely question that a "general" audience will be buying and reading this book, especially at the price. It will be read by mostly serious Luftwaffe readers like on this forum. So why include these? We would not mind a lack of photos if there aren't any meaningful ones. It might save quite a few pages and costs.
• I am not being mean-spirited or ungrateful that a pilot has finally done his memoirs, but I would like to hear other opinions of the book.
• Did I enjoy the book? Yes, but on a scale of 1-10, a 6.5.

[Nokose]

John, does it list the Russian unit, type aircraft and pilot in this book? Christer Bergstrom was going to write this book originally but had a dispute.

[John Beaman]

He usually lists the type of Russian machine but not the unit except on occasion.

[Jim Oxley]

Christer seems to have been involved in several disputes that have brought his writings to a halt. Which is an absolute shame, as it looks likely that the BC/RS series won't be finished.

[Nokose]

Thanks John for the response from my understanding Christer had traced all the claims but I guess he didn't pass on all of them. Shame that there might not be any more BCRS volumes. I'm sure Nikita will have the best one to come out in the future on Stalingrad (even if it's in Russian).

[David P. Williams]

I've just finished reading the book, which I thought was very well written and gave a good insight into the character/personality of some of JG 5s greatest aces, such as Weissenberger, Franz Dorr and Heinrich Bartels.

Schuck is the second highest-scoring ace alive, second only to Erich Rudorffer and his book is a welcome addition to the growing list of Luftwaffe biographies. Horst Kube and his publishing company have done a very good job and should be congratulated.

I can think of several high profile biographies that have failed miserably to come up to public expectation over the last 6 or 7 years.

All in all a nice book and worth the expense.

Cheers,

David.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Schuck´s memoirs were indeed very good, at least the Finnish edition which I have read. On the other hand, lately there have been many politically motivated Luftwaffe biographies, like the one on Günther Lützow. I couldn´t simply finish it as the author´s political sneering got so overwhelming. Apparently that author has not heard what Helsinki University professor, Dr Matti Klinge has written on proper historiography. A proper historian does not judge, he does not treat historiography as a court of law, he describes events as they happened, he does not apply later day standards on historical events or personalities and fnally, he tries to describe events from the participants´ point of view, not some later day moralizers.