Black Cross Red Star, Vol. 2, now sent to the printer - this is not the old edition!

[Christer Bergström]

The brand new Black Cross Red Star, Vol. 2,
has now been sent to the printer!

Expect one month's production time, then we will send it to everyone who has ordered it.



https://vaktelforlag.se/produkt/blac...1941-may-1942/

This new edition of Volume 2 is so heavily updated and expanded that it more or less is a completely new book! It contains more than twice the wordcount of the 23-year-old edition with the same title.

ISBN: 978-91-88441-89-8



From the content:
* The contribution of the Soviet Air Force to the counteroffensive at Moscow
* The Luftwaffe’s crucial role in halting the Red Army’s counteroffensive
* Dogfight over the “Ice Road” to Leningrad
* The Air Bridge to Demyansk
* Annihilation from the air at Crimea
* Air Battle over Kharkov

384 pages
Hardcover
Large format (A 4)
347 photos, many of which have never been published before
Many large and clear maps
Aircraft color profiles

Order a personally signed copy from me at vaktelforlag@gmail.com

[James A Pratt III]

I got a copy and it is an excellent book i do have some errata and comments;
typos:
Page 88 "...A Pe-3 and a Pe-3 were destroyed." It looks like one should be a Pe-2

Page 93 the TB-3 in the picture is a DC-3 or Ps-84

page 173 picture should be 1943 not 1942

page 200 the Empire Lawrence was a CAM ship not a AAA ship

page 322 should be 27 may not 17 may

[James A Pratt III]

page 178 has in the Baltic "... the Soviets sank 43 vessels."

in "Allied Submarine Attacks of World War Two ETO 1939-1945" Jurgen Rohwer
and a number of the (From Soviet Empire) in axishistoryforum.com and from an answer on this site this is what I have for 1942:

submarines: 23 ships sunk 3 others possible and 7 damaged with 2 other possible
aircraft 1 sunk and 5 or 6 damaged
TKA 1 ship sunk
2 ships sunk mines laid by Soviet mines in 1941

A problem in the Baltic is it was heavily mined too put it mildly so it's sometimes hard to figure out whose mine sank which ship.

page 176 Spitsa's German pistol lets just say millions of Soviet military personel and civilians brought home firearms as soveniers ect. Even though the USSR had strict gun control laws

Marshall Grigory Zhukov was found to have brought home "Twenty unique Shotguns from Holland & Holland" according to "Stalin the court of the Red Tsar" S.S. Montefiore page 548

The American Rifleman Feb 1989 It was estimated at this time there were 15-17 million illegal firearms in the then USSR. A joke of the period "Why do Estonians pour oil in their flower beds? So their guns won't rust!"

[James A Pratt III]

On Soviet casualties: on youtube WW2TV they have had on Nigel Askey on presentations Soviet Casualties During Operation Barbarossa 3 parts:

BCRS Vol 2
page 293 Kerch 162,282 KIA/MIA Krivosheev Germans claim 170,000 POWs
page 323 2nd Kharkov 170,958 KIA/MIA Krivosheev German claim 239,000 POWs

according to Askey and others who has done a lot research German claims of POWs are accurate. Kirvosheev figures for the 1941-42 encirclement battles are on the low side because he didn't get the army records ect. Also there are no records on how many NKVD casualties per battle. As for Kerch some of the POWs I would say are naval or merchant sailors. I have read in other accounts the Germans sometimes rounded up any military aged male they found as POWs.

Askey has a site Operation Barbarossa.net

I hope this is of some use to everyone.

[edwest2]

I am quite leery of anything on YouTube. Generally speaking, no standards apply. Anyone can post anything. No standards apply in terms of fact checking and in many cases, no real identities apply. There is a large difference between amateur material and professional. For those who are inexperienced regarding any subject, a presentation with flashy graphics may be accepted as entirely factual, but with no basis for comparison. For example, book reviews regarding aviation history on Amazon very rarely turn out to be from people who know the standard book review format or who even have a background in the particular subject.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by edwest2

I am quite leery of anything on YouTube.

And often I’d agree with you but the www2.tv channel is “one of the good guys”. Paul Woodadge who runs it interviews authors and academics about their work, often for an hour or two at a time.

[edwest2]

Thank you, Nick. I was hoping for an answer like that.

Best,
Ed

[FalkeEins]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Paul Woodage who runs it interviews authors and academics about their work, often for an hour or two at a time.

.. eg the episode with Greg Way, author of "Fallschirmjaeger" who discusses 'Merkur' for nearly two hours. Well worth a watch. Greg subsequently helped caption some of the more 'obscure' images in my DFS 230 monograph..

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by edwest2

Thank you, Nick. I was hoping for an answer like that.

Best,
Ed

This new interview with the archivist of the International Bomber Command Centre is woth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kzLRUp37tM&t=1538s

[James A Pratt III]

I have found most of the presentations on ww2tv to be good to great. Nigel Askey also has a site operationbarbarossa.net and has a number of books out.

and now back to BCRS V2
page 64 has the minesweeper T-402 sunk by air attack on 28 Dec 41 Both navy.su/other/lost/index.htm and Warship 2016 article on The Soviet Fugas Class minesweepers have this ship sunk by a mine off Feodosia on 22 Sep 41

navy.su/other/lost/index.htm (which I got from the Axcis history forum) has:
minesweepers:
T-491 damaged 27 Dec 41 Kerch prospect German aviation sunk 2 mar 42 Kuchugur sunk while towing
T-485 sunk 28 Dec 41 Kerch ave aviation (raised) sunk 25 Feb 42 raid Kamysh-Burun aircraft