This is an excellent volume on the Junkers Ju 88, presenting an overview of the aircraft and the men who flew it in most of the roles it undertook; bomber, intruder, long-range day fighter and reconnaissance. Night fighters are not covered. While Volume one focused on the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain, Volume two, "the Twilight years- Biscay to the Fall of Germany" provides good coverage of the activities of the Ju 88 Gruppen in Russia and the Mediterranean and looks at reconnaissance and torpedo operations. Many of the more 'famous' Ju 88 pilots appear in this great collection of images such as Baumbach, Helbig, Herrmann and Hogeback along with some of the lesser known, such as the Eichenlaub winner Gruppenkommandeur III./KG 76 Hptm. Heinrich Schweickhardt. Schweickhardt and his crew went missing during a flight from Catania to Athen-Tatoi on 9 January 1943 after a radio message saying he was having engine trouble. This was after combat about 100 km west of Zakynthos. The aircraft was Ju 88 A-4 WNr. 142338 coded 'F1+GS'. Posthumously promoted to Major, he had flown around 400 missions. Hogeback qualifies as the Ju 88 bomber "aces of aces" with 500+ operational sorties and being one of only three Ju 88 pilots to receive the Knights Cross with Swords - we see him here in Russia with III./Lehrgeschwader 1 and later in as Kommandeur of III./KG 6. Captions are for the most part informative and extensive with mostly one picture reproduced per page - occasionally two. The title also features torpedo-carrying Ju 88s of KG 26 and the dive bombers of LG 1. Deployed early on in the Mediterranean, LG 1 would soon prove to be one of the most formidable and feared opponents of the Royal Navy. Under the orders of Kommandeur Helbig, the "Helbig flyers" of I./LG 1 as they were dubbed were responsible for sending a number of Allied ships to the bottom while KG 26 used Schiffssuchradar - shipping search radar FuG 200 Hohentwiel - to attack the Murmansk convoys in the Far North. Heavy fighters also receive a chapter - 'Battle over the Bay' covers both the well-known V./KG 40 and the little-known ZG 1 - and there is a small section at the end on the Misteln 'piggy-back' aircraft. Well worth adding to your library at 198 pages, slightly bigger than A-5 format softback..good value at the RRP ( )

The author is an acknowledged expert on the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War, and this book adds to his library. It follows on from a similar book about the Ju 88 in the early years of the war. The Ju 88 was one of the most versatile and widely used German aircraft of the war, and this book covers a range of its operations. These include over the Soviet Union, the Mediterranean, Reconnaissance aircraft, Torpedo operations, sorties over the Bay of Biscay, the latter years from 1943 until 1945, and the Ju 88 Mistel.

What makes this book stand out is the quality and rarity of the photographs. This is not an area of military history that I claim to know much about, so I found it both interesting and moving looking through the photographs the author has included. There are useful captions to the photographs, but I admit I would like to have seen a little more information provided about the aircraft and the units that operated it. I accept there are other publications that cover the technical and operational detail of this aircraft, which may be why this is not included in this book.

In conclusion, the main focus of this book are the photographs, and rightly so. They are superb and well-presented by the publishers. A welcome addition to my library, and highly recommended to anyone interested in this aircraft, or the air campaigns in the Second World War in general. ( )