The Eagles Over Europe Project

[Larry deZeng]

I have been warned against posting personal comments and opinions here, even though everyone else does it and nothing is said, but I am going to take a chance here. If you have ever seen Larry Hickey's:
Hickey, Lawrence J. Warpath Across the Pacific: The Illustrated History of the 345th Bombardment Group During World War II. Eagles Over the Pacific, Volume I. Boulder (CO): International Research and Publishing Corp., 4th ed., 1996. ISBN: 0 913511 02 1. 500+ Photos. Color profiles. Maps. Bibliography. Index,
then you know he produces an outstanding book, unsurpassed, in fact. But if you have known him for nearly 20 years like I have, you know that he always uses his rather unique team approach and never establishes parameters for his book projects. What he says will be finished and brought to market in 5 years ends up taking 10-12 years or longer to complete. Back in the very early 2000's, he told many of us that Eagles Over the Pacific would eventually have 18 to 20 or more volumes. But he lost interest in the Pacific Theater somewhere along the way after completing just 2 of his big "project" volumes, I think, Warpaths and Rampage.

So, from personal experience, I would caution all of you that you have a long, long wait before an Eagles Over Europe volume appears. Additionally, Larry Hickey is almost my age (80), so he is getting on and may not have the good health and high energy needed in a few more years to finish these huge undertakings. Like you, I hope he does.

L.

[edwest2]

Thank you for posting this Larry. I've been in the fiction book publishing business for 30 years. I know how things can change and so on. I wish you, Larry and his team all the best.



Ed

[Del Davis]

Thank you ,Robert, for the update. It is certainly good news that the project is moving toward publication. Like Larry, I am well aware of the promises of the Eagles over the Pacific project made in the 1990s and still not realized. I had hoped that EoE would not suffer the same fate and therefore have periodically asked for an update which I thought was due to the members of this board. I am only approaching 70 and still have hopes to see both EoP and EoE completed

[Del Davis]

Another 8 months have passed and still there is nothing published. Can we expect to see something in 2019?

[robert]

Hi Del,

manuscript for 1.9.39 is finished - there are approx. 600 pages of text, which must be edited and adjusted to our book format. Maps are finished and we are working on aircraft profiles. We are still looking for some photos! So if anyone could help us in this subject it will be greatly appreciated.
On the other side I`m now finishing manuscript for 14.9.39 - more than 120 pages.

Regards

Robert

[edwest2]

Hello Robert,

What specific types of photos are you looking for?

Best,
Ed

[robert]

Hi,

aircraft (Luftwaffe, Polish Air Force), emblems, crashes, men, airfields and attack assessment photos.

Regards

Robert

[Dan History]

I will leave two links here which will be of interest to those who are following Eagles over Europe project and the other endeavours coordinated by Larry Hickey.

Four books of the Eagles over the Pacific series are listed as available and five as 'in production'.

https://irandpcorp.com/current-projects-2/

There is also a blog with relatively regular posts about the air war over the Pacific, presumably using material collected during the course of the Eagles over the Pacific project.

https://airwarworldwar2.wordpress.com/

Kind regards,

Dan

[rof120]

Let us face it (and be brave): it is very unlikely that we will ever hold one of these dozens of very exciting, fascinating volumes in the series "Eagles over Europe" (EOE) "in our greedy hands". One or two volumes at best: Polish Campaign 1939, if at all.

Quite obviously my friend, our friend Larry Hickey is very ill. Before he was he often posted several messages right here within one day - now nothing at all. He didn't need anybody else to write on his behalf (or not). I think he wrote several hundred emails to me before he was ill. Many of these were long or very long. We often discussed particular matters at length and in-depth.

Larry spent very large sums of his own personal money on this project, which is very commendable - his great efforts and his huge amount of work for many years, and his devotion too.

Possibly all these efforts and these large sums of money are not really lost for it is certainly possible to publish several volumes containing photographs with captions as well as color profiles and maps (I think at least part of them do exist by now). Larry also had many German texts including a very long one (written by Weiss?) on the 1940 French Campaign translated into English. A book or two containing these translations (and photographs) would most probably be a success.

Well Larry, if you can read this, your friends and your fans are not forgetting you and they'd like to know how you are.

[rof120]

A point I forgot to mention: Larry is one of the very few Americans who showed real interest in the European part of World War II. This is very commendable too (he showed he was a real historian who realized the enormous significance of this war in Europe). No other person, not even a German, French, British or other person, ever published, or attempted to publish, such a giant, comprehensive historical work on the air war in Europe from September 1939 through December 1940, or for any period of WW II. Jochen Prien's giant series on German fighter units is something entirely different - and very useful and interesting too.

Larry thought that his OEO volumes would not be profitable so he would lose money, probably a large sum. I disagreed and I still disagree. In my humble opinion there is a good market for such high-quality, very valuable historical works. I think it would at least break even but most probably be really profitable. Appropriate publicity could be necessary - and fully justified. For example I feel the volumes on the French Campaign (10 May-24 June 1940) would sell at least 5,000 copies, probably much more for precisely this period of the AIR war was, and still is, neglected or ignored by historians although it was at least as significant as the Battle of Britain, which happened to be the last 1940 air battle and thus was a decisive event. Larry was about to close this gap - much to many people's delight.

Crossing fingers for Larry.