Market research - 'Most Wanted' Luftwaffe books

[MW Giles]

Regarding the difference between aircraft and ships, I think it comes down to numbers

An example, there were 27 Tribal Class Destroyers built. You can know the spec of every one, their captains and crew and what engagements they took part in. Fleet engagements are relatively rare and there are often enough survivors from both sides to compare notes with. Crews were large enough for someone to prepare logs and reports that were highly contemporaneous.

There were 6000 odd Bf110s produced in 30 odd main marks and a number of subvariants. They were used sometimes multiple times a day and their engagements are only sparsely recorded, a fact made worse by later document destruction. Their crews were often completely lost.

The difference in mindset between naval history and aviation history readers is an interesting one, that would probably be worth a PhD if you did it right. Is it that there is a much longer history of naval writing, I have on my shelf a copy of James' Naval History of the Napoleonic Wars at sea which gives a lot of detail about some very small engagements. It was written in the 19th century, not long after the events it describes Perhaps books like that set the precedent.

Avaition comes along and we get lots of pictures of pretty planes and a few whizz bang stories of daring do and everyone aged 5-16 is happy. They then grow up knowing no better and the book trade continues to churn out what they know will sell, rather than take a chance on the more esoteric

Martin

[edwest2]

Martin,

Taking chances in publishing involves money and/or highly skilled businessmen. I work for one such person. He has taken the time to learn what needed to be done and put in the hard work to make it happen. As you may know, some here have self-published after 20, 30 or more years of research. This type of dogged determination is required. My employer has read hundreds of books to help add some level of plausibility to the fiction we produce. For non-fiction, finding out who has the required documents and then setting up a plan as to how to proceed is necessary. Patience is also required.

Best,
Ed

[Jukka Juutinen]

Sorry John! It was Larry De Zeng's post...

[John Vasco]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Sorry John! It was Larry De Zeng's post...

I realise in this thread there is a hell of a lot of opinions and interests covered. I was scratching my head over mentioning 250 books, though.

[Larry deZeng]

My comment was an estimate of 250 books and researched articles. There was an avalanche of these back in the 1960's and 1970's, then it tapered off a bit and eventually returned with a vengeance. Strictly my opinion. I didn't count them.

L. deZ.

[Jukka Juutinen]

Martin Giles mentioned low numbers as an explanation to the difference between aircraft and ship books. Not necessarily, but the difference applies to tanks too, and tanks definitely were produced in mass. For German tanks one can check e.g. Alexander Volgin's book on Tiger II or Walter Spielberger's series. They are highly detailed and very technical.

What is also interesting is that books (in English) on German aircraft of the 1933-1945 era, the most detailed ones are on types that were very insignificant for the total Luftwaffe effort. The most detailed such books I have come across cover the Ta 154, He 162, Me 163 and Do 335. All this while really meticulous books are lacking on the Ju 87, He 111, Hs 123, Hs 126, Fi 156 aspect very poorly covered is Luftwaffe aircraft armament , especially "ordinary" weapons like the MG 151 and German gun turrets and defensive installations.

There is also a very strange gap in aircraft monographs, namely that the post-WW1 to 1945 period is very susceptible to that superficial technical treatment of aircraft. there are excellent books with significant technical details on WW1 aircraft (for example the old Putnam "German Giants") and again with particle suction devices (=jets) the same technical emphasis resurfaces.

[Richard Mills]

For myself a couple of 'Most Wanted' spring to mind.....

Translated into English and updated, I would like to see a re-issue of Ulf Balcke's books on 'Kampfgeschwader 2'.

For 'Classic' to release a book on the Me 210/Me 410, covering the operational element and a photographic record (along the lines of Chris Goss's Classic releases Do 17, Do 217, Fw 200).

A multi volume series covering all of the ZG units employed in the RLV, covering operations, claims, losses and involved personnel.

(I can dream).

[Mikael Olrog]

Interesting thread, which I've just now detected.

My 2 cents are that there is a wealth of material still not accessed or used out there in various archives and collections waiting to be located. The challenge is that it requires a lot of time, ingenuity, and money and that you often have to go there in person to find it, since most of it is not digitalised or might not even be properly catalogued. Obviously, the active support and generosity of other researchers and collectors is imperative for any author to bring out something new. An author is not just challenged by having to spend time and financial resources to locate these unused sources, it can in the end often be a financial loss for the author to publish a book. Especially if the book is on a narrower and more specialized subject.

Personally, I’d like to see more in depth books on the other axis air forces, a detailed book on the He 100 and He 112 would be interesting and the Ju 188 is still open for some serious attention. I’ve got some other ideas too, but will keep them for myself for the time being :-)

[richdlc]

thanks for the reply Mikael