Bagration to Berlin: The Final Air Battles in the East 1944-1945

I’ve finished reading Christer Bergström’s “Bagration to Berlin’, which is his fourth and last book in his series about the air war over the Eastern Front in WWII for Classic Publications. This book covers the period from summer 1943 until May 1945. As with the three other books, this one is excellent, covering the operations from both sides. Together with the three others, it gives a very good overview of the air war on the Eastern Front and is a must for anyone interested in this area.

Rating 4/5

The book is available from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bagration-Berlin-Final-Battles-1944-1945/dp/1903223911/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235592011&sr=8-1

Keith Park

It seems like Sir Keith Park is on his way in from the 'cold': http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10556832

Frantisek Cyprich

The Slovak fighter ace Frantisek Cyprich (http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/slovakia_cyprich.htm) passed away on 31 January 2009 as the last of the Slovak aces.
Cyprich has long been thought to be the last pilot to claim a biplane victory when he shot down a Ju 52 on 2 September 1944. However, during mine and Ludovico Slongo’s research for our CR.42 aces book we were in contact with the Hungarian researcher and historian Csaba Becze. His research has shown that one of the NSGr. 7’s pilots claimed a P-38 during combat on 8 February 1945. Unfortunately, his name is not known and nothing more remains about his identity in the existing documents. What is known is that the 14th FG lost two P-38s in this mission.
This combat seems to be the last biplane victory ever claimed.
For more info see: http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/falco_germany.htm

Aircraft over Sweden and Scandinavia

A real cool page, which shows all aircraft in the air over Sweden and Scandinavia. It’s in Swedish but is really easy to understand – just click on one aircraft and you’ll see were it’s coming from (Från) and where it’s heading (Till), type, carrier, speed, height etc. Updated every 5th second!
http://www.flygradar.nu/karta.php

P-35A, AT-12 and P-66 in Swedish Service as J9, B6 and J10

The Swedish author Mikael Forslund has written a new book and this time in English! In 1939-40, Sweden ordered 120 Seversky/Republic P-35s, 88 Seversky/Republic AT-12s and 144 Vultee Vanguards but due to an U.S. embargo on export of armament due to the ongoing war only 60 P-35s and 2 AT-12s were delivered to Sweden. The book covers the use of these aircraft in Sweden were they were put in hard use. The book has a multitude of pictures and covers the fate of all of the aircraft.
Nice effort to cover a couple of unusual aircraft in a small Air Force and highly recommended!

Rating 4/5

The book is available directly from Mikael at: http://www.mikaelforslundproduktion.com/4.html or from Amazon.

Militærhistorie

A recommended military magazine from Norway. Unfortunately it only in Norwegian but if you’re a ‘Scandinavian’ it well worth to have a look at this well-produced magazine!

http://www.mht.no

Searching the CWGC more easily

Well hidden inside a site about crypts is this nice little page, which helps you search through the CWGC (http://www.cwgc.org/ ) for a specific unit.
A very useful tool!

http://www.hut-six.co.uk/cgi-bin/search39-47.php

Giuseppe Ruzzin

I’ve been reached by the sad news that Giuseppe Ruzzin (http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_ruzzin.htm) passed away on 6 February 2009.
Giuseppe Ruzzin was one of the first pilots I managed to get in contact with when I started to research biplane fighters aces more than 10 years ago when he kindly replied on an mail from about his experience during the Spanish Civil War.

Italian-French air war in June 1940

An interesting topic on the TOCH-forum - http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=15850 regarding the Italian-French air war in June 1940. On my site, I have the following pilots making claims during this period:

13 June
Teresio Martinoli - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_martinoli.htm
Dino Carta - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_carta.htm

15 June
Anelli, Giulio - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_anelli.htm (the whole action on 15 June is described on this page and respectively pilots page)
Benassi, Bruno
Benedetti, Mario
Bobba, Guido
Bodini, Virginio
Bortolini, Gaetano
Caselli, Nino
Clerici, Lorenzo
Colombo, Francesco
Daverio, Mario
Ferrari, Giovanni
Fibbia, Guido
Fratini, Delfino
Garfagnoli, Pietro
Gatti, Franco
Giuntella, Giulio Cesare
Giuntella, Giulio Cesare
Graffer, Giorgio
Grillo, Giacomo
Guidi, Ugo
Lazzari, Antonio
Lodi, Gino
Lolli, Carlo
Longhi, Felice
Magaldi, Nicola
Mariotti, Luigi
Marzocca, Raffaele
Molinari, Eduardo
Negri, Giovanni
Pacini, Achille
Parmiggiani, Eudo
Pasquetti, Luigi
Pongiluppi, Virgilio
Pratelli, Rolando
Rolando, Fortunato
Rossi, Paolo
Ruzzin, Giuseppe
Salvadori, Giuseppe
Salvi, Eugenio
Sozzi, Felice
Spigaglia, Alberto
Squassoni, Felice
Stefani, Emilio
Tessari, Arrigoto
Viola, Natale
Vosilla, Ferrucio
Zotti, Bruno
Zuffi, Giuseppe Enrico

23 June
Clizio Nioi - http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/italy_nioi.htm

If anyone can provide additional info on this period, please feel free to contact me!

The Red Baron

New techniques (CGI) bring new possibilities to do films with aircraft not available any longer. “The Red Baron” from 2008 is one example of this and as an aviation and movie enthusiast, I’m always eagerly awaits new aviation movies. Unfortunately this movie suffers from the same problem as “Flyboys” from 2007, in that the massed scenes with aircraft in the air isn’t convincing, this both from directional and technical aspects. However, the movie points in the right direction and hopefully the CGI technique will improve quickly and that a good director comes along, who can make an aviation movie that truly competes with “The Battle of Britain” from 1969 as the best aviation movie.

Rating 3/5

Since Peter Jackson (“Lords of the Rings”) is a big aviation fan, perhaps he would be the right one to do a real epic about/with aviation?

Photos

I’m looking for photos from the Commonwealth Air Forces (RAF, RAAF and SAAF) in North Africa and Greece during the period 1940-41 for a couple of book projects. Any contributions would be most welcome!