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Albatros Productions Ltd. |
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Jagdstaffel 5, Volume 2 by G. K. Merrill |
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Reviewed By Don Garside, #30235 |
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Jagdstaffel 5 was one of the premier German fighter groups of WW1. Counted among its ranks were some of Germany’s best pilots such as Fritz Rumey, Josef Mai, Hans von Hippel, Richard Flasher, and Otto Konnecke. If you don’t recognize some of those names, I can guarantee that you would recognize their planes. And that’s where this fine 54 page soft cover volume from Albatros Productions comes in. First the profiles: There are 26 color profiles, four of which show side, top, and bottom views. Nine of the profiles show top and or bottom of wings as well. I was also impressed with a few of the “informal details” that the artist threw in such as wheel chocks, stands, tarps, even a few dogs lounging about underneath the planes. The profiles are mostly Albatros D.V’s, but there are a few Fokker.DR1’s, one Pfalz D.III, and a few Fok.DVII’s too. In typical Albatros Production fashion even the cover art is fantastic. Artist Robert Karr depicts ground crew and barnyard animals scattering as von Hippel brings his “D.V. “for a somewhat poor landing. There are also 31 line drawings of the rear portion of D.III fuselage’s to show various placements of personal and national markings. While there are no references to FS or Methuen color guides, the text seems adequate in color description Speaking of text, this is very readable! The book includes many anecdotes and stories of flying and fighting on the western front. There is a pretty fair amount of information regarding victory claims, even going so far as to name the British and French pilots and observers when possible .For example, there is the story of the Bristol F2b that was brought down intact by Jasta 5 and used as squadron hack. Among it‘s, other duties it was used as transportation for “nurses” to be brought to Jasta 5’s airdrome for parties. There is also attention to detail in such things as aircraft serial numbers, propeller types and things of that nature. While some may not find that kind of stuff to important, it’s there if you do and for some reason many WWI aviation buffs love that “stuff”. Of course the part that Jasta 5 played in the overall scheme of things is also covered. Some special attention is being given to the relationship between Jasta 5 and von Richthofen. The photo’s are of the large-format type, there are 44 of them, and they will prove to be excellent reference for modeling……sorry only one cockpit photo, that of a D.V.’a. The photos also include some nice shots of the pilots themselves, here again being an excellent reference for uniforms and flight gear etc. Jagdstaffel 5 sells for L22.00; that’s about $39.00 according to the exchange rate that I saw. I would highly recommend this volume to anyone interested in modeling a plane of Jagdstaffel 5 or anyone interested in WWI aviation. I would also urge anyone who may be interested to check out Albatros Productions web address……www.windsockdatafilespecials.com Thanks to John Noack and Albatros Productions for the review sample. |
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