Jagdfliegerverbände Vol. 9 / III

[Jochen Prien]

Gentlemen,

I almost don't dare to announce the publication of Vol. 9 / III of the JFV series after a number of technical and organizatorial problems that have so far prevented the book from becoming available. I sincerely apologize for the repeated delays.

As of today I have returned the proof read material to the printer who will start working next week aiming at a final release date of mid-August. The book will comprise 509 pages with 501 photos, about a dozen in colour. There will be fold out maps and the usual line drawings etc.

The production delay of Vol. 9/III has allowed me to build up a certain advance with respect to Vol. 10 which will cover the Reichsverteidigung 1943 as well as operations in the West in that year. The sheer amount of material makes it neccessary that this will be another triple set. I have so far completed the manuscripts for 10 / I and II and the Reichsverteidigung part of 10 / III with the chapter dealing with the West still to be tackled.

Compared to Volmes 1 - 9 there will be a change in the structure of Vol. 10 in so far as 10 / I will be a general part on the Reichsverteidigung alone giving a day to day account of aerial daylight operations over the Reich in 1943. The air battles will be described with the participating units being dealt with summarily, the details of their operations following in 10 / II and III in the usual fashion. The idea behind this is that with the growing number of units involved in the aerial battles it would lead to endless and tiring repetitions if we stuck to the format that we have worked on until now and which will be continued with on the other theatres of operations as before. As of now it looks like there will be well in excess of 1.000 adaequate photos for all three volumes so that the degree of photo coverage can be maintained as until now. This of course is not meant to deter anybody out there from making available any wothwhile photo to us in order to share it with the readers of the JFV series as it has happened in the past and would be gratefully appreciated.

We are plannuíng and hoping to publish 10 / I at the end of this year. The proof reading of the manuscript shall be completed by the end of September / mid-October latest and then go to the printer. Let's hope for the best.

Again - my apologies for the delay with Vol. 9 / III; I hope the result will make good for the long time of waiting.

Regards

Jochen Prien

P.S.: Before the question will come up again - as of today I cannot tell how many Volumes here will be in the end if we can ever complete the series. It looks as though with the basic structure of 16 Volumes left unchanged, the overall number of books including the subvolumes may end up between 26 and 28 depending on what material will be available at the time.