Andrei Alexandrov

Great pictorial survey of German planes in Soviet service. Not as much history as I would have liked, but very interesting photos. About half are of crashed or derelict planes. The other half are of the survivors in Soviet use. A fair amount of detail about each, when available.

I'm a little torn. This is definitely a good book, and anyone interested in aviation history will like it. For those with an interest in this very specific segment of WW2 aviation history, it's worth it, pretty much. But it's not quite the comprehensive overview I expected, and paid for.… (mer)

(Part review) An interesting book, even though I only have half of it!

This work examines the role of German aircraft in Russian and Soviet service up to the outbreak of the Cold War. Volume one (not seen) covers Wolrd War I and the inter-war years when the uneasy peace between what we would now call the "pariah states" of Germany and the Soviet Union allowed the development of the revived German Luftwaffe under a cloak of secrecy provided by the Soviets. This volume covers aircraft captured by the Russians during the Great Patriotic War and booty aircraft recovered after the war's end. There are especially rare pictures of the DFS 346 rocket plane project which used German advances in rocketry to run tests on what most people probably think of as just another German "paper plane".

For some reason, the work is oddly split across the two volumes. This, volume two, includes the appendices from volume one; so not only do we get data tables and registration lists relating to the first volume, but we also get plans and colour side views as well. This means that, as a bonus, we get color plates of rare birds such as the Junkers G-1, the Ju.20 and the Ju.21 amongst others.… (mer)