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Putnam Aeronautical Books |
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The German Fighter Since 1913 by Rudiger Kosin |
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Reviewed By Art Silen, #1708 |
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MSRP: $40.00 USD Hardbound, 288 pages For a half a century and more, Putnam Aeronautical Books has maintained its growing and well-respected series of books on the history of aviation, mostly by manufacturer, but increasingly by aircraft type and usage. Although expensive, each volume is well worth having in any aviation historian’s collection. The three titles that I describe in these reviews are grounded in German aviation history from the years before World War I to the end of World War II, although one, Rudiger Kosin’s history of German fighter aircraft, carries his narrative into the mid-1980’s; each is similar in format, yet at the same time each differs from the others in how it approaches its subjects. Together, they are valuable reference points to the history of German aviation, a history that until very recently, was somewhat neglected in the English-speaking world. Much of the problem lay in lack of access to original sources until the last decade, as a considerable portion of German aircraft design and manufacturing lay in the former East Germany, the Czech Republic, and other places dominated by the former Soviet Union. As a matter of policy, those regimes disassociated themselves with their predecessors and discouraged any interest in histories that would have been regarded as glorifying the Nazi regime and cause. Once Germany reunited, however, new opportunities for rediscovering what had occurred manifested themselves, published first in Germany, and which now increasingly are available in English translation. Rudiger Kosin’s, The German Fighter Since 1915, occupies much of the same terrain as the others, but with its focus on fighter development. Translated by Keith Thomas, the original German edition appeared in 1983 as, Die Entwicklung der deutschen Jagdflugzeuge (“The Evolution of German Fighter Aircraft”). Kosin’s survey begins by examining German military aviation’s beginnings in 1910 with an exploration of the concept that an aircraft could be armed with a machine gun and using the aircraft’s flight path to aim the weapon. From there he moves onto progressive refinements, including an idea appropriated from the French, that of firing the weapon through the aircraft propeller’s arc (the French using armored propeller blades to deflect bullets hitting them). He then describes how the first fighter aircraft were developed from simple monoplanes like the Eindecker to its bi- and tri-wing successors, which offered much greater structural strength and agility in aerial combat. General arrangement drawings are finely drawn, with basic structural detail. The narrative is supported by graphs, and tables comparing dimensions, weight, and power of each aircraft type used by Germany in World War I, together with a report by Baron on Richthofen, Leader of Jagdstaffel I to the Flying Corps Commander General von Hoppner in which Richthofen described his leadership style for controlling his unit in combat. Following Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the destruction of its air arm, Kosin describes the interwar years in which German strove to avoid the strictures of the Versailles Treaty and rebuild its military aviation capabilities, using civilian aircraft and foreign factories. Very little of this has appeared in English language publications. By the early 1930’s, the movement of aircraft from its designated role as reconnaissance for ground forces to an active fighter mission was well underway, even before Adolf Hitler came to power. Following Hitler’s ascension to power and his initiation of his rearmament program, the Luftwaffe rapidly regained its lost ground against its principal potential adversaries, the French Armee d’l’ Air and Britain’s Royal Air Force. From there, we move onto familiar territory. Kosin’s discussion of the wartime history and the eventual destruction of the Luftwaffe’s fighter force is useful, but his narrative would benefit from a more comprehensive and detailed analysis. Indeed, that story has been spread over a dozen volumes in my own personal collection; perhaps someday the publisher will commission an updating of the book that could bring the entire story together. Beyond that, I detected several minor errors in the captioning of photographs (a Bf 109F trop was identified as a Bf 109K). On the other hand, Kosin puts a human face on what otherwise would be dry statistics. In all, the book is useful and informative, and while not perhaps the heavyweight the other two books reviewed above, nevertheless it warrants respect; so, if one shows up, buy it. Perhaps it is because the wartime fighter force has had so much attention over the years that an author such as Kosin could justifiably summarize previously published material; and yet his technical descriptions of aircraft are interesting and informative. In the Post-War Era, Germany began limited production of military aircraft, at first using foreign (chiefly American) products, including the Republic F-84F Thunderstreak and the F-104G Starfighter. Indigenous design centered on the reborn Luftwaffe’s need for VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft that permitted tactical dispersal while still capable of supersonic flight at altitude. This effort resulted in the development of the Süd Development Combine VJ 101, with wingtip turbojets designed to rotate from horizontal to vertical to effectuate take-off and landing, and the VAK (Vereinigte Technische Werk) in Bremen joining forces with Fiat, in Turin, Italy. The vertical take off and landing (VTOL) requirement imposed too heavy restrictions on combat aircraft abilities to enter and leave target areas at high speed and low altitude. Instead, designers changed their focus to an aircraft with STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) features, eventually creating the now-familiar swing-wing Panavia Tornado. To conclude, this book is recommended and without exception; is worth owning, even at today’s high prices. This is an essential reference tool, engaging and informative; modelers, historians, and enthusiasts alike will want them as ready references, and although there is less to guide modelers in recreating described aircraft’s physical detail, they provide even experienced modelers essential context and transition between aircraft of succeeding eras. Serious modelers cannot hope to understand the aircraft they are depicting fully unless they also bring the history and technologies associated with them to their craft so that the final result becomes an historical era realized in miniature. |
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