Status Update Jagdflliegerverbände Vol 9/I

[Larry Hickey]

I recently received an e-mail from Dr. Jochen Prien on the status of JFV Vol 9/I, which I thought would be of high interest to many readers of this board. With his permission, I'm quoting below the relevant information. As noted in a previous report, Vol. 9, the winter of 1941-42, will be presented in three separate volumes: 9/I to 9/III.

"...Vol. 9/I (is now) in its final corrections; it will hopefully be out by the end of May/early June. It will for the first time include colour photos, this time not only those related to the Winter War 1941/42 but all that belong to the periods dealt with so far. Altogether this will be some 50 or so colour images, maybe more. Beside that, work on the Home Defence in 1943 has started; here we will change the format insofar as the general narrative will be widely expanded and include the operations of the units, as the growing number of fighter units were mostly involved in the fighting over the Reich so that it would lead to endless and tiring repetitions if we stuck to the format used up
until now, which of course will be continued for the other theatres of
operations. The new format not only gives a much more complex reading but
also - and foremost - a much more intricate task to put it all together.
From working up through the year I can really feel how the US air offensive
over the Reich gained momentum and, at the same time, how more and more German fighter units poured into the fighting with large-scale air battles
developing in the end."