John Weal

One of Weal's earlier works for Osprey, the length of the "Aviation Elite" series allowed him to go into some matters that might otherwise get glossed over, such as how the pilot replacement system worked. Besides that the "Green Hearts" had an unusual history for a German fighter wing, if only because one of its "gruppen" was basically built from the fighter arm of the pre-Anschluss Austrian air force. Also, the core of its service was as the one fighter wing serving over "Army Group North" on the Russian Front. From there it's the typical story of the elements of the German fighter arm, swinging from Blitzkrieg glory, to the grind of attritional warfare, to trying to mitigate final collapse by flying from the "Courland Pocket" to Denmark to surrender to the British.… (meer)

Yet another of Weal's monographs of Luftwaffe fighter wings, although this number strikes me as being one of the better ones. Still, if you're going to go "meta," they all basically tell the same story. Early war glory, the grind of the middle years of the war, and then fire-brigade duty, as separate sub-units were rushed from one "hot" zone to another, until the final collapse arrived.

What does provide further food for thought is some editorializing Weal indulges in at the end of the book. In 2005, the German government saw fit to withdraw the name of Werner Molders, the eminent combat leader intertwined in the story Weal is telling, as being an exemplar worthy of naming a unit after. This was ostensibly in deference to the Spanish Republic (Molders had served with the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War). However, it does show how much Weal was captured by his subject by how he goes on, in a personally aggrieved fashion, about the churlishness of it all. Of course, what goes around comes around, as the German Social Democrats now find themselves in the position of coming up with a credible, self-generated, military policy, which isn't self-disarmament; the joys of trying to find a usable past!… (meer)

Considering all the different series that Osprey has published over the years, I still consider the "Aviation Elite" books some of the best, if only because they allowed the authors to go into somewhat more depth. This becomes particularly relevant for German units, considering the over five years of continuous combat they experienced. As for JG 27 in particular, I was mostly just aware of their service in North Africa, and didn't have a great of sense of their other operational deployments, particularly in defense of the Reich. Although pushing 20 years old, this booklet is still worth having.… (meer)

While this seems to be one of the better Luftwaffe unit histories that the author has written for Osprey, one basically knows the story here; rising to glory in 1940-1941 only to lose the battle of attrition. JG53's particular distinction might have been to reflect this dichotomy in somewhat sharper contrast than some of its sister units, in that it was graced with the presence of Werner Molders when he was glorified with the award of the Knight's Cross, only to be scapegoated with the running series of defeats Germany received in North Africa and the Mediterranean from late 1942 into 1943.… (meer)