LaGG & Lavochkin Aces of World War 2

[Ruy Horta]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

I think I read on the old TOCH forum that the BCRS series was totally one sided in its view of the air war in the east, being biased on the side of the Luftwaffe, but I don't agree, at least not in Vol II.

I very much doubt that you've read this on TOCH!, if anything there was a slight trend in the opposite direction!

[FalkeEins]

..you asked for corrections Andy...
Hans-Joachim Kroschinski (WIA 21/12/44) was an Oberfeldwebel...his own account of his shoot-down is in Lorant's Fw 190 volume.. he reported having waded into a large formation of Pe-2s that morning (21/12) with his Schwarm, downed five of them (his 71-76 kills) and took a burst of fire from a sixth, a bullet going through his calf and his machine bursting into flames..he bailed out with 2nd & 3rd degree burns... He was promoted to Leutnant and awarded the RK on 17 April 45 while still recuperating in hospital...

[Juha]

Hello, again we are drifting away from the heading of the thread, but.
I'm not a great fan of Christer's books but at least from them one learn what VVS was, what it had and what it did. And there is much info, much on the feelings of participiants and Christer and co tell the story well. Sometimes He and his Russian co-author IMHO exaggerate the results of Soviet actions but even then one at least got the info how the Soviets view the results of their operations. For example I rather strongly disagree with their claim on BCRS Vol 2 p. 106 that the anti-shipping attacks of the Baltic Fleet's Naval Air Arm VVS-KBF "were far more effective than the LW effort to neutralize the Soviet warships..." in 1942 but at least the authors tell us that VVS-KBF had active torpedo a/c regiment flying Il-4s at that time. I just read from Harold Thiele's Luftwaffe Aerial Torpedo Aircraft and Opereations in World War Two on p. 17 that it is belived that the Handley Page Hampdens flown to the Soviet airbase at Vaenga and later turned over to the Soviets formed the nucleus of a modern Soviet airborne torpedo force. The claim is false. The first mass produced torpedo-bomber in Soviet Union had been DB-3T (an earlier version of Il-4) and it had used to equip torpedo units in 1939 -40, IIRC. Soviet union was capable to form a torpedo aircraft arm in herself. So there is clearly still need for good books on Eastern Front air war like BCRS series and probably Thiele's book is also needed to increase our knowledge on the use of torpedoplanes in LW. I haven't read yet enough of it to form an oppinion on it on its main theme.

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

I agree with Juha. Just because a book is published by Osprey it doesn't mean the book is poor. The author is a far better indicator of the quality of the book. For example I think Rumanian Aces of WW2 (Dénes Bernád), Hungarian Aces of WW2 (Gyorgy Punka) and Croatian Aces of WW2 (Dragan Savic & Boris Ciglic) are excellent books, the material being well researched.

Andy,

Just a small note: I have read just the Hungarian Aces book, but it contains mistakes and high percent of these mistakes were made not by the author, but by the publisher (editing, printing, painting mistakes)
Their another book with Hungarian details, about the WW I Austro-Hungarian aces is simply a weak one.

So, I am not a fan of the Osprey's basic style at all.

[Andy Fletcher]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the info on Hans-Joachim Kroschinski.

Andy Fletcher

[Andy Fletcher]

Originally Posted by "Ruy Horta

I very much doubt that you've read this on TOCH!, if anything there was a slight trend in the opposite direction!

Hi Ruy,

I may well be mistaken, but I thought that Franek was questioning some of the assertions made by Christer in his book. Maybe Franek was questioning some other point made by Christer.

Andy Fletcher

[Franek Grabowski]

Andy
My point is that the book follows a lot of propaganda from both sides. A lot of brave and skilled guys and some bad guys on the top. I do not mention preemptive attack theory which is not discussed at all!

[Andy Fletcher]

Hi Csaba,

The 96 page format of the Osprey "Aces" books leaves a bit to be desired, even when the author supplies accurate info it sometimes gets cut to pieces by the editor to fit the book format.

Regards

Andy Fletcher

[Boris Ciglic]

Quote:

"Andy,

Just a small note: I have read just the Hungarian Aces book, but it contains mistakes and high percent of these mistakes were made not by the author, but by the publisher (editing, printing, painting mistakes)

Csaba"


Eh, Csaba, tell me about it! Already the second paragraph in mine and Dragan's book (Croatian Aces) has been seen by us for the first time the moment we received the printed book and it really hurt! Especially keeping in mind it is an absolute historical nonsence, the opposite fact being known by every pupil in this part of the world.

Boris

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Boris, some days ago I received a copy of a book, which was published in the US and sounds about some military equipments. It contains some small mistakes regarding these rifles but the main problem is, that the author written a 'historical introduction' about Central Europe from medieval times (according to him, based on some well known books from the United States) It is full with very serious mistakes from the first mentioned battle, near Dürnkrut in 1278 (the book stated that in this battle Habsburg Rudolf at last defeated the Hungarians and stopped the Hungarian nomadic campaigns agains the west, however the Hungarians led their last campaign against western Europe three centuries ago and in this battle the Hungarian king, IV. László was the ally of Rudolf and they defeated the Czeczh king, Przemysl Otakar) till June, 1941 when the author stated, that Bulgaria attacked the Sovietunion (nonsense...)