Oswald Boelcke The Red Baron's Hero/Lance Bronnenkant

[Jukka Juutinen]

In last December I received Bronnenkant's book on Oswald Boelcke. The publisher is Aeronaut Books. I have by now just browsed it, but it is extremely thorough with 856 large format pages. It does beg the question: Where are equally thorough and big English-language biographies of WW2 German aces?

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Jukka, like this WW1 biography there should be more...
I do have:
1-Erich Hartmann by Ursula Hartmann and Manfred Jäger (https://www.bookdepository.com/Germa.../9780887403965) 296pgs, A-4 Format;
2- ADOLF GALLAND by Toliver (new version https://www.bookdepository.com/Fight...1_sims_b_p2p_1) 216 pages, A-4 format;
3- WALTER NOWOTNY by Werner Held (https://www.bookdepository.com/Germa...1_sims_b_p2p_1), 168 pages;
4- HANS-J. MARSEILLE by Kurowski (https://www.bookdepository.com/Germa...1_sims_b_p2p_1), 256 pages A-4 format;
5- SCHNAUFER - Ace of Diamonds by Hinschlife (https://www.amazon.de/Schnaufer-Ace-.../dp/0752416901), 336 pages A-4 format.

There are other biographies, but on different formats and style.

Maybe the point here is NOT the number of pages, but the amount of new information released or informed.

In some of the above biographies, we do not have for instance the FULL list of victories claimed by the ace...neither a cross-check with the Allied losses (Galland, Marseille, for example). In some we do have access to the Veteran's or Family's Albums of photographs so we have a good background of his infancy (Hartmann/Schnaufer/Nowotny).

I have not read yet the biography you do mention, but surely it sounds and looks great. Howeve, how many new photos or images have appeared? Or are we seen the same old images from previous biographies captioned on a different way?

Lucky are the Historians who can have access to the veterans' documents or Memorablia via the Family roots and ancestors. If this is the case, we (the Aeronautical Community) surely are bound to be happy with the contents.

I remember acquiring a "Cat's Eyes Cunningham" biography wishing to find everything and being totally disappointed....There are other cases too....

Personally, I believe that MOST of the WW2 self-published biographies written by the veterans themselves AFTER WW2, during the 50's should be re-written with the modern access to Archives around the world and maybe with the help of the Family and other Photographies' Archives around the world; including access to Logbooks, Flugbuchs, etc. Example of memories that fit into this category: Robert Johnson (56th FG), Boby Oxspring (92 Squdn,etc.); etc....

AND we do have the cases of airmen who STILL do not have a full biography: Hansgeorg Bätcher (maybe the new owner of his Memorablia can read and think about a full biography for us?); EDUARD TRATT; some LW reconaissance airmen; and so on....

I have, for instance, after more than 12 years of researches, published the full biography of the late Wing Commander Cosme Lockwood Gomm, DSO, DFC with help from the Family. We do have documents related to his infancy, his schooling in Switzerland, his letters to his Family in Egypt as well as some during the war. We do have Logbook entries both from RAF and LW, including from airmen that flew with him and against him (his victor). This is perhaps one of the most extensive biographies ever written, with 1,118 pages in 3 volumes....But it took some 12-13 years and travels all around the world (France, England, several trips to towns in Brazil, by plane), interviews and contacts with hundreds of persons, help of dozens of Historians of this Board and Collectors around the world...Not easy task, believe me....

Maybe, relatives are encouraged to preserve the deeds of their veterans, writing their full biographies...who knows?

But, this is almost sure...to be successful (I mean to write something for the benefit of the Aeronautical Community and for posterity), one must have had access to the Family's Archives and help from them...and from others. ALONE we go nowhere....

Semper Fi

Adriano