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Luftwaffe In Colour - The Victory Years 1939-1942


Mike

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Luftwaffe In Colour

The Victory Years 1939-1942

Casemate UK

 

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Once the nascent Third Reich had broken cover and begun rearming in the open during the latter half of the 1930s, their publicity machine went into over-drive to convince their people that they were übermensch, and that their armed forces were the best in the world, in anticipation of their successive land grabs to expand their empire.  Colour photography had been available for some time by that point, although it was expensive, but the Publicity Machine run by Dr Geobbels used it to a great extent in their propaganda drive.  The resulting stills were printed in the major propaganda organs of the day, such as Signal and Der Adler, but colour photography was sometimes used by those that could afford it during the early years of the war, which has resulted in some really useful colour evidence that was gathered incidentally to the real subject matter of friends and colleagues as they documented their experiences in the war.

 

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Colour developing wasn't as exact a science as it is today, so we have to make some allowances for this, and for the possibility that some prints have been reprocessed over the years, but it is still impressive to see, gathered together in one volume.  Compiled and written by Christophe Cony and Jean-Louis Roba, the book extends to 192 pages in a portrait A4 format, with a perfect bound cover and quality glossy stock, which is unsurprisingly printed entirely in colour.  There are 300 photos within the book, and they are of a wide variety of subjects, varying from candid snaps to posed publicity and unit archive style photos.  The book is broken down into sections based upon location and campaigns, as follows:

 

  • Introduction
  1. The Pre-War period
  2. From Poland to Sitzkreig
  3. Blitzkreig in the West
  4. The Battle of Britain and the Blitz
  5. Marita & Merkyr: Blitz in the Balkans
  6. Operation Barbarossa
  7. African Adventure and the Mediterranean Front
  8. In the West
  9. The Second Line: Schools, Factories and Training

 

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Photography throughout is excellent, subject to the limitations of the source material of course, and it is good to see so many of them printed large enough to see the details without squinting!  There are all manner of aircraft types within the pages, from the ubiquitous Bf.109s to the Heinkel He.115 float planes and beyond.  The final chapter regarding training shows some interesting shots of the gliders that were used initially to circumvent the Versailles treaty embargo on Germany having an air force, and later to test the aerodynamics of such advanced projects as the Me.163 Komet.

 

The next volume in this series will document The Years of Defeat, following the Luftwaffe to their ultimate downfall and near annihilation at the hands of the Allies.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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On 11/15/2016 at 3:29 PM, Mike said:

 the book extends to 192 pages in a portrait A4 format

 

 

not trying to nit-pick and I appreciate Casemate's own blurb states 192 pages, but there are only 160 pages in my copy..still, nice glossy paper, decent print quality, well worth getting. Steinhilper's Emil isn't there either, but both Galland's and Mölders' Emils are there in colour 

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Mine's in the book cabinet, but I copied the number from the PR handout, so you could be right.  I'll check later, and update the review if necessary.  I showed it to my son last night, and he leafed through it at length, seemingly thoroughly enjoying the process.  He was quiet, which is always a good sign :)

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