Nachtjagd War Diaries Vol 2 An Operational History of the German Night Fighter Force in the West, April 1944 - May 1945

Part 2 of Dr. Theo Boiten’s masterpiece (this one written together with Roderick J. Mackenzie. The same comments goes for this volume as for volume 1 (see below). Unfortunately, there is no searchable index in the book which is a pity and somewhat limits the use of the book as a reference. However, volume 2 ends with and index on all Luftwaffe night-fighter pilots with one or more victories and their fate, which is most useable.
Recommended!

Rating 4/5

The book is available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nachtjagd-Diaries-Operational-History-Fighter/dp/1906592004/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237926481&sr=8-2

Nachtjagd War Diaries Vol 1 An Operational History of the German Night Fighter Force in the West, September 1939 - March 1944

Dr. Theo Boiten has written an excellent book about the German night-fighter force during the Second World War. The book is a nice combination of detailed information of each night’s operations and lists with all German claims made during each night. All claims is also verified, if possible, with Allied losses. I like very much this kind of book with with day-by-day texts followed up with lists of the claims. The only thing I miss is an additional listing on the losses of the night-fighter force (like in Keskinen/Stenman’s Suomen Ilmavoimat series) and an index (but that is perhaps in Vol. 2, but that volume, I will order as soon as possible.
Recommended!

Rating 4/5

The book is available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nachtjagd-Diaries-Operational-History-September/dp/095547356X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237314700&sr=1-1

Ali D’Africa

Exciting news!

During March, the book ”Ali D’Africa” will be available from Istituto Bibliografico Napoleone IBN.
This book is written by Michele Palermo and my friend and co-writer on this blog Ludovico Slongo and covers the 1o Stormo C.T. in North Africa from November 1941 to July 1942.
I have had the opportunity to read the manuscript and it’s very good with lots of interesting information. Still today, the best source to the air war over North Africa is Christopher Shores and Hans Ring’s now out-dated “Fighters over the desert” from 1969. In this book the Italian units is very poorly covered and almost all Allied combats/losses are verified against Luftwaffe records and the part taken by the Regia Aeronautica is neglected (must possible due to lack of sources at the time of writing). “Ali D’Africa” remedies this regarding the 1o Stormo and compares the unit’s combats with available Allied and Luftwaffe records showing that the Italian units played an important part on the Axis side.
This book is, to my knowledge, the first covering this period in detail written by Italian researchers/historians made available in English. This is a very important event!
The book is written in dual Italian/English and will cost € 18. It’s available for pre-orders from IBN@aviolibri.it

Rating 5/5

Catalina to Sweden

Interesting news!
A Consolidated PBY-5A Cztalina is on its way to Sweden. It's a former Spanish waterbomer, which will be flown to Sweden during the spring/summer.
For more info see:
http://waterbomber.blogg.se/