Focke-Wulf Fw190 in the Battle for Sicily by Morten Jessen & Andrew Arthy

[Schlactflieger]

I've just received my copy and thought I'd contribute something here as it's an extremely good book, which I thoroughly recommend, and some might dismiss it because of the price. 54 Euros (including p&p) is a lot of money for most people, but if you are interested in the Fw190 and/or the Mediterranean theatre, then it's definitely worth it. If your interest is the Luftwaffe, then I still think it's worth it.

This book is a follow on from their previous “Fw 190 in North Africa”, but this time they have published it themselves. Anybody who has the previous book will know what to expect, a thoroughly researched and comprehensively covered subject.

After the Forward and Introduction the book is divided into 8 chapters. The first chapter summarises the situation at the start of the period covered and the units that were involved, followed by a day to day coverage of operations in the form of a war diary. The following chapters start with a brief introduction, then the main bulk is the war diary style coverage of the period finishing with a few paragraphs in conclusion.

These are followed by 10 Appendixes, which includes loss lists, victory lists including shipping and ground claims plus claims by escorting fighters, camouflage and markings and bombing tactics.

Within the text, as well as 137 b&w and 3 colour photos, there are maps showing flight routes and the areas involved, illustrations made at the time by the pilots involved, tables and text boxes of additional information and 11 specially commissioned artwork by Claes Sundin, which are reprinted full pages size in the appendix and include 2 Bf109s and 2 Spifires, the rest being Fw190s. These 11 prints on there own would cover the cost of the book and a bit more. To my knowledge, none of the luftwaffe aircraft have been illustrated before. I don't know about the Spitfires.

There is also extra information linked to the book on the publishers website http://www.airwarpublications.com where you can also order the book and download some pages from the book to give you a flavour of the content.