New Stuka book

[edwest]

Hitler's Stuka Squadrons by John Ward. Paperback, 7 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches, 224 pages, 15 color. The promo text indicates that this book "...separates fact from fantasy regarding the achievements and career of the Ju 87 aircraft."

I have not seen this book. I am not an agent for any bookseller, the author or publisher.


Ed

[Dick Powers]

I browsed this book at my local Border's. My impression was that it was derivative, having no new information and the color profiles, to my eye are not to the standards set by Classic or Eagle publications. I was disappointed, since a thorough operational history of the 87 is lacking.

[edwest]

Thank you for the info.


Ed

[Erich]

do not despair MP is working on it......

[edwest]

What is MP working on?


Ed

[Jukka Juutinen]

Originally Posted by Erich

do not despair MP is working on it......

If MP is Martin Pegg I hope he includes serious technical stuff for gear heads as well. His Hs 129 book was seriously lacking in this regard. It is simply unacceptable that you can get better technical description of the Hs 129 from the Czech MBI cheap booklet (Bernad et al) than for Pegg´s £40 book.

[Dick Powers]

The best book currently available on the 87, in my opinion, is Manfred Greihl's. It's even available in English. It is a bit light, however, on operfational use. Each Geschwader is discussed in a few paragraphs.

[Jukka Juutinen]

I have to disagree. Griehl´s book is very weak as far as gear head stuff goes. He seems to love Werkenummern that are of zero interest to me. He fails to deliver anything in depth on systems, structure, construction materials, handling. Not a single performance curve there. I am having high hopes for the Ju 87 volume in the Black Cross series (tr. from German Vom Original zum Modell) for the 4 first volumes have delivered much tech material that far more expensive and larger monographs utterly fail to do.

[leonventer]

I have John Ward's new book, and I agree with Dick Power's comments.

Fortunately, there are many other volumes devoted to the Ju 87 (at least 40 that describe the aircraft, plus about 15 biographies and unit histories.) None of these books qualifies as the definitive Stuka reference, so you'll need at least a few of them for decent coverage.

Here are some recommendations:

- "Junkers Ju 87 Stuka" by Smith; Crowood, 1998; ISBN 1-86126-177-2
(Not to be confused with his earlier book, "Stuka at War")
Perhaps the best single volume on the Ju 87. Describes development and operational history, with more emphasis on the latter. Includes personal accounts, biographies, tactics, foreign use, OOBs, loss statistics, and good photos. Weak on technical data.

- "Junkers Ju 87 Stuka" by Griehl; Airlife, 2001; ISBN 1-84037-198-6
Another good single-volume work. A good complement to Smith's book, with more detailed coverage of development history, armament, production, night units, training units, and carrier/torpedo variants. Also weak on technical data.

- "Vom Original zum Modell: Junkers Ju 87" by Erfurth; Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1999; ISBN 3-7637-6017-2 (To be published in English as vol. 5 of the Black Cross series by Specialty Press/Midland)
The best technical reference, with reprints of pages from technical manuals, performance curves, construction details, production line photos and detail shots, descriptions of all prototypes and production variants, etc.


Other worthwhile resources:

- "Stukas!" by Leonard; Editions Heimdal, 1997
High quality photos.

- "Ju 87 Stuka in Action" by Filley; Squadron/Signal, 1986
- "Junkers Ju 87 Stuka" by Bily, Androvic, Bernad; MBI/Sagitta, 1992
Useful detail drawings of the differences between variants.

- "Junkers Ju 87 from 1936 to 1945" by Leonard, Jouineau; Histoire & Collections, 2003
Lots of color profiles.

- "Junkers Ju 87D/G Stuka" by Aero Detail, 1994
Close-up color photos and detailed drawings.

Leon Venter

[Geoff Kennell]

Could anybody reccomend the best books on the Ju87 during the Battle of Britain?

I've seen a number of books on the Stuka, but would prefer one that concentrated on the 1940 period (as 'Zerstorrer' does for the Me110) than one that covers the whole war.

The same goes for the Ju88, Do17, He111, and Me109.

Geoff.