Focke-Wulf Fw 190: The Early Years - Operations Over France and Britain (Air War Archive)

Great pictures, lite on technical info but worth the price.

This book is just a list of aircraft and units. It has pictures of pilot with planes. Nothing else. No history of development, no action reports other than the most rudimentary. There’s just nothing here.

I was disappointed in this and other recent purchases in orders placed on 10-04-23. The book was very high rated by the reviewers but consisted mostly of photos with captions with little description of the airplanes and, while this format might be very appealing to some readers, it was not appealing to me. It was not noted in the books’ description and I unfortunately missed the one 1-star review of the book which was the only indication of that book’s format. The book did include a byline in its cover indicating “Rare Luftwaffe photographs from wartime collections” but I don’t think that this accurately indicates that the book consists almost entirely of these photographs.To me particularly useful was the ability to look at the book’s table of contents to see the level of detail covered as well as sample pages. But unfortunately you deleted this capability from your book ordering pages. If this capability had been available I would have been able to see that the book’s format was not what I was looking for and I would not have ordered it. I am not sure why you have deleted this capability from your book ordering pages.So from now on and until this preview capability is restored I will not be ordering any books from Amazon unless I’m familiar with the book’s format like for the Osprey Dual series.

When asked to think of the most iconic German aircraft used in WWII, we often recall the Messerschmidt Bf-109 series or the infamous Junkers Ju-87 stuka dive bomber. Rightfully so, these aircraft variants have earned their well-deserving places in the hall of fame of military aviation history due to their sheer effectiveness and extensive media coverage. The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 is another fighter aircraft used by the Luftwaffe to fill multiple combat roles including interception, bomber escort, night-fighting, close air support, and so on. Rather than giving an encyclopaedic coverage of this versatile warplane, Chris Goss focuses on bringing the Fw 190 to life with the help of numerous photographs and highly detailed accompanying captions. Indeed, just as the author intended, I found these historical images as the crux of this book’s value proposition. Goss does not just concentrate on moments when the Fw 190 operated in the skies either as an individual dogfighter or as squadrons. As readers, we are treated to detailed pictures of aircraft engines and weaponry. While only an aeronautical engineer or a true enthusiast would be able to understand complex flight instruments, these photos provide those interested in military aviation history an opportunity to appreciate just how difficult it was to train competent pilots and how sophisticated the Fw 190 was as an aircraft. Furthermore, the author illustrates the close bond that existed between the German pilots and their Fw 190s; several photographs present in the book show pilots engraving enemy planes they have shot down, thereby turning their aerial vehicles into some form of historical record and performance report. Smiling pilots performing maintenance tasks on their machines demonstrates the close bond that existed between man and machine. Such photographs allow us to perceive the men of the Luftwaffe as human beings with dreams, ambitions, fears, and other emotions found in all human beings. If one seeks to examine this historical aircraft from multiple angles without visiting a museum, then this book will serve him well. Introducing military hardware in the form of photographs supplemented by detailed captions can be very effective than just using words. This presentational approach may be used to make other vehicles – either ground or aerial – highly accessible to newcomers and experts alike.

very good!

Awesome pictures!

Great publication , full of previously unpublished photographs , along with detailed information on the individual pilots and squadrons highlighted. A must for any Luftwaffe enthusiast or model maker.