1941 – The Non-Stop Offensive Part 1 by John Foreman and Winfried Bock

[Stig Jarlevik]

Well Andrei

To a certain extent I agree with what you say. I would also have wished a lot more would have been included in this, four part, overview of 1941, but now that it isn't we have to look at what we actually get. I think that Foreman's aim was/is not to produce any books about how the leadership of either RAF or Luftwaffe were either thinking or planning for the future. There are many other books which cover such subjects. I agree it is a pity we don't get more times and exact numbers of aircraft taking part in every mission, but that would have made these books very much larger, more expensive etc which may be one reason such details are missing.

However, judging from what interest individuals on TOCH, I see no lack of interest in individual claims/losses, day by day. On the contrary we have an almost 'endless' amount of requests exactly about that. I happen to be one of them as well. So in my mind I think the books are good enough,

I thought it was quite funny that you say these books were good enough in 1988 and not in 2018. That is of course true in a sense. Had this and other books in this genre been available back in 1988, there would have been no need for them today. However since they were basically not (I would say 1987 was a crucial year), I can still see an enormous need for them, at least for those of us interested in day-by-day accounts. Before 1987 I believe only Francis Mason with his ground breaking Battle over Britain and Christopher Shores' Fighter over the Desert/Fighters over Tunisia had been published with a day-by-day theme. From 1987 they were followed by further books by Shores, including co-writers, and many others.

From then on, we have been treated to an incredible number of day-by-day histories from British, German, American and at least one French author( s ).
True they have taken different approaches to the subject, but the fact remains they seem to sell very well, most likely due to a good enough market. People are still interested in the subject regardless if it is 1988 or 2018.

Sadly one nation is missing from these day-by-day histories, at least on my bookshelves, and that is Russia. Published in Russian perhaps? In such a case I would say they would have the same "good" market as their western counterparts....if translated of course.....

Cheers
Stig