Market research - 'Most Wanted' Luftwaffe books

[James S.]

Detailed Unit Histories in English on JG 5 & JG 77.

James

[Jukka Juutinen]

Originally Posted by Peter Kassak

Unfortunatelly NOT. It is a combat area and unit that is in my field of interest...



Are you aware that Naval actions takes days, and air actions takes seconds? also to analize movement of few ships is something different than analyze movements of hundreds of bombers and their cover fighters and opposition. Unless we are speaking about dogfight, but there you do not know who made what move its not recorded.

Well, look what John Lundstrom did with his two "First Team" books. Or Larry Hickey's work. As to who made what move, original combat reports provide such information.

[edNorth]

Originally Posted by ju55dk

No more books about Bf 109 or Fw 190. They have both been amply covered in English and German. Still waiting for definit Ju 88 book based on original sources.
Junker

That needs incorporate both. -Ed

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

As to who made what move, original combat reports provide such information.

And how many original Luftwaffe combat reports have you seen?

[Jukka Juutinen]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

And how many original Luftwaffe combat reports have you seen?

Since I don't speak German it would be a bit useless exercise. Since Finnish, British and American combat reports do usually contain such information, why would not German...

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Jukka Juutinen

Since I don't speak German it would be a bit useless exercise. Since Finnish, British and American combat reports do usually contain such information, why would not German...

The German ones probably did but since hardly any survive authors can’t use them as a source.

[richdlc]

(from our forthcoming Do 17/215 'Kauz' book)

''After the crew returned, the pilot wrote a Gefechtsbericht (combat report), and if they claimed a victory, an Abschuβmeldung (victory report/claim form) was completed. The other crew members wrote Zeugenberichte (witness testimonies) which they signed. Their Staffelkapitän filed a Stellungnahme (statement) and this was complemented by another statement by a Stabsoffizier.''

that's six pieces of paper at least for a fighter pilot, or in the case of a Do 17 crew eighteen. The trick is to actually find surviving reports. I have seen one or two for auction, but I don't think there's many out there from the German perspective

[MW Giles]

I do not get the impression that many fighter pilots are the sort of people that like filling in forms and reports.

Was the Lw system the same as the Allied, in that a nice intelligence officer asked you some questions at debriefing and then went away to write the report down, which was then presented to you to sign?

[Dénes Bernád]

Since many of us on this forum are either authors, or specialists, or highly knowledgeable enthusiasts, I believe the result of such poll is not relevant.
Based on my experience - and probably others', too - it's primarily the modellers and the general history enthusiast who make up the bulk of the book buyers. Therefore, this poll should be (also) placed on modellers' forums, to gauge the interest of the potential buyers. My two-cent worth opinion. P.S. Great discussions, by the way...

[Jukka Juutinen]

Originally Posted by MW Giles

I do not get the impression that many fighter pilots are the sort of people that like filling in forms and reports.

Was the Lw system the same as the Allied, in that a nice intelligence officer asked you some questions at debriefing and then went away to write the report down, which was then presented to you to sign?

Definitely not the Finnish style. Each pilot wrote his own combat report and there are significant style differences between individual report writing styles.