The Eagles Over Europe (EOE) Project

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Several people on this board in personal messages have asked me to explain what the EOE Data Base is all about. Rather than answer the question over and over to each individual, I've decided to post a general statement about this on TOCH.

First of all, what is the EOE Project? EOE stands for Eagles Over Europe (EOE), which is the European air war counterpart to my Eagles Over the Pacific (EOP) book series. The ultimate goal of the EOE Project is to work with as many of the best authors, historians, researchers, photo collectors, artists and mapmakers available throughout the world to produce a multi-volume series of books that would be, in effect, the definitive history of the air war in Europe for the period 1 September 1939 through 31 December 1940, a period that I've been intensely interested in for about 50 years (I'm 64 now). Even though I'm now retired and can devote full time to the EOP and EOE Projects, I estimate that this will take about 10-15 years to complete all of the volumes, depending on the resources put into the project on my part and the level of cooperation that I receive from others.

The EOE volumes will be published in sequence, beginning with the Polish Campaign, perhaps on a schedule of two every year beginning in about 1-2 years from now. I envision at least two volumes per subject, one primary and one secondary (at least two primary volumes on the WC and possibly 3 primary volumes on the BoB through the end of 1940). Each primary volume will be chronological, illustrated by as many as 1000 photos and maps, and at least one secondary volume will be published that includes definitive appendices, much more photography and other appropriate materials. Each volume will be approx 500-750 pages each in length on 8 1/2 x 11" page size (similar to continental A-4 I think). The first volume on the Polish Campaign will not be published until three of my Pacific air war books, now almost finished, are off to the printer within the next few months.

Some material being considered for the secondary volumes may include rosters of all airmen on all sides involved in the time period relating to the book, plane serial number lists with tactical numbers and pilots, where known, and full victory claims lists on all sides. We will include a full list of lost and damaged aircraft on all sides, but I'm not sure how this is going to be handled, whether in the primary volumes or as, in effect, an appendice in the secondary volumes. It is also possible that if we have enough photography and other relevant materials that further "secondary" volumes on any given time period can be published. So, in effect, the series can expand as necessary to include further research and additional photography which might become available.

As part of this project, I expect to create 1000 or more top-quality full-color aircraft profiles, which will include an effort to portray not less than one historically documented aircraft from each squadron involved in a covered period of time, including transport, recon, maritime and other lesser known units, but not training aircraft. These will include the aircraft of all major combat leaders and many, many "aces" and, hopefully, for the Luftwaffe, all "Knight's Cross" winners. These are not intended, however, to only show the most well-known or successful pilots, but many aircraft of the line airmen of lesser fame as well. I intend to work with as many of the very best researchers in the field as possible to help create the info for these profiles, so that they set a standard for historical accuracy never before achieved in the field for a project of this scope.

We fully intend to "map" all of the major air activity, perhaps as often as each day, and with all major missions. Many innovative mapping techniques based on the latest map-making software and technology are being explored.

So what has been achieved so far? Given the long lead-time of such a project, initial exploration of the feasibility of such a project began in 2004, and has resulted in four major trips to Europe by myself over the past three years to investigate how this could be achieved, and contact some of the people who might be involved. To date, some forty people in twelve countries have offered to support or help with the project in varying degrees, everyone from some of those widely considered to be the top experts in their field, to local researchers who cover only one small region or narrow field of research. Some of those will likely be co-authors or associate authors of the individual volumes. Most or all of the volumes will likely have multiple co-authors. Anyone who contributes or participates will be full acknowledged for their help. This isn't a conventional publishing project, but rather an effort to pool the tremendous amount of material and information together under one umbrella to published the definitive texts on the subject for the periods covered.

The response to my efforts has been absolutely overwhelming to the point that it has often bogged things down because such a huge amount of photos and research material has been made available to the EOE Project. To organize and handle this volume of material, we've created a massive photo data base that now numbers about 23,000 images, all catalogued in great detail for retrieval purposes. Thousands of more images are awaiting coding and processing into the DB.

To support the project, the EOE WG is compiling a very detailed data base of every Allied and Axis aircraft lost or damaged, covering the entire 16-month period of time. This is similar to the format that Peter Cornwell has used for his massive volumes on the French Campaign, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz, only expanded and updated. This part of the EOE project is making excellent progress, under the direction of Peter Cornwell, with all Luftwaffe losses during the Polish Campaign, the Phony War and the Scandinavian Campaigns now being completed through April of 1940. Another team is working on a Polish loss list, which has been compiled through a Version 1 draft. I should note that the loss lists will include all losses on all sides during the entire 16-month period, including in the German homeland and North Sea Operations, not just the specific campaigns.

As sources, we started with two major private data bases, one provided by Jim Perry, based upon the QM Reports, but greatly expanded by all other sources know to him, and another provided by Winfried Bock, which, besides the QM Reports, includes information from all the known NVMs. Winfried has also provided chronological data for each day during the period for Luftwaffe victory claims.

One real breakthrough was the unexpected acquisition a little over a year ago of the 75,000-page personal archive and 6000-page manuscript of Heinrich Weiss, who passed away a few years ago. He spent decades of his life compiling a massive data base from the BA, WASt and other archives sources, including Allied, which were then distilled into two versions of a very detailed history of Luftwaffe and Allied air operations in the west from 9.39 through about mid-1941. This time line very closely parallels the period of the EOE project. His personal manuscripts, for which I acquired copyright from his family, are in German, and are part of a massive project which has been on-going for the past three years to translate the key documents, books and articles relevant to the project. For, example, to date, we've translated approximately 3000 pages of material from Polish into English, just for the PC part of the project. Other translating efforts are ongoing in French, Dutch and German.

Before this becomes a book in itself, I'm going to end this for now (my wife is calling dinner), so I'm going to leave this open for questions. I encourage anyone who has something to contribute to this effort, no matter how small, to contact me. This is an inclusive effort, and is designed to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities opened up by the internet, eBay, Google Earth, and other advances in technology. We badly need volunteer translators willing to help with the huge amount of research material that needs to be turned into English for this project. Anyone willing to be part of this project is welcome to become a member of the EOE Working Group (WG), which does not preclude your being able to pursue your own personal projects, as many of our WG members are already doing. Also, I'm very willing to exchange information, particularly with those that are willing to make their photos, archives and research available for the project.

So, off to dinner here in Boulder, Colorado, at the foot of the beautiful US Rocky Mountains.

PS: If anyone can fix the meltdown in the world economy, that would be a major contribution to this project!

Regards,

[edwest]

About the meltdown. Fear not, Larry. Things will sort themselves out as they did the last time.



Best of luck,
Ed

[Larry Hickey]

Ed,

Thanks for the encouragement. I just hope this isn't different than "last time."

Another point that I want to make about the EOE DB. One of the efforts upon which we are expending a lot of resources is locating and matching photography of every aircraft damage/crash that we possibly can and integrating this "photo intelligence" into both our loss data base and captions for our photo collection. We have matched up a very large number of crash photos with the specifics of the incidents and added many a/c codes, W.Nr.s and details of what happened to the aircraft, particularly in the case of shoot downs from either flak or fighters, to our DB. This has only become remotely feasible due to the huge number of crash photos that have appeared in recent years on internet sites such as eBay, where one can see as many new, useful photos in a day as you used to see in the new literature in a year. The owners of several major photo collections have joined our project, and we have been able to acquire a very large number of photos of the aircraft losses, both Allied and Luftwaffe, in this way. The handwritten captions on the back often are invaluable in helping us pinpoint which crash or forced-landing in our data base this photo represents, and since loss info in the Luftwaffe QM reporting is often only the area the plane was last seen, a photo on the ground with a specific location is often as precious as gold to us. I encourage anyone who can help us match crash/damage photos with the Luftwaffe loss reporting, to give us a hand. Even if its for only a single photo for which you have info, or a small number of them. We're not just interested in the "big fish," but the little ones too.

You've seen me ask some questions related to this problem on the TOCH Board, sometimes with marvelous results. So if you have any unique photos and want to share scans of them with us, we'd be glad to hear from you. We're also systematically searching and obtaining photos for our data base from the major "official" collections in Europe and the USA, which we've been scouring for the past three years both for photos and identification info. We may well publish 10,000 or more photos in our various volumes from the 16-month period we're covering, and I assure you that it will be the most comprehensive collection of Luftwaffe photography for our period that has ever been presented. Period.

I also want to thank all of those who've contacted me on the Private Message Board and offered your assistance and support. It is most welcome.

All for now.

Regards,

[Jim Oxley]

How many books are there in the EOP series? I can only find two, namely Warpath Across the Pacific and Revenge of the Red Raiders.

[John Vasco]

23,000 photos, and you still don't have one of Rubensdörffer's 110...!!! Keep searching, Larry, keep searching!

[Kari Lumppio]

Hello!

Does The Eagles Over Europe -project include (Luftwaffe in) Finland?

From the description one can get impression that the project deals only Luftwaffe and it's non-Soviet adversaries. Yet Finland is part of Europe (as is Soviet Union/Russia etc.). So what is the geographical definition of "Europe" in the context of your project?

With Best Regards,
Kari Lumppio

[Larry Hickey]

Kari, et. al.,

Good question. At present, the beginning of the project is 1.9.39, with the German invasion of Poland, but we have gathered loss/victory materials for the Russo-Finnish War, leaving that an open issue for now. Regarding other countries, this project covers in minute detail the air operations involving all countries involved, not just the Luftwaffe.

This is a Luftwaffe interest board, so I might have over-emphasized the Luftwaffe side of things in my postings.

Regarding John Vasco's comment about Rubensdörffer's 110, I feel that we have enough info now to do a 99% accurate color profile of his aircraft, but I'll keep searching John. Never fear. It's out there and we'll get it.

To Jim's question, about the EOP series, there are two volumes in print, three more finished except for final editing and layout (Rampage of the Roarin' 20's, Saga of the Sun Setters, Ken's Men Against the Empire), plus a two-volume history of the 3rd Bomb/Attack Group (Harvest of the Grim Reapers--Vol I & II) is well down the pike. Beyond that are possible future volumes on the 35th Fighter Group and the Tainan Kokutai, as well as another major Japanese history.

Regards,

[Jim Oxley]

Thanks for the update Larry. I have Warpath Across the Pacific and Revenge of the Red Raiders. Superb books. Can't wait for the others to hit the street!

[Del Davis]

Larry,
Since you mention that 3 more EOP books are close to completion are you able to project tentative publication dates? or at least your plan?

[Skyraider3D]

Need artists, you say?