Kagero have made a good choice for the launch book in their new “Monographs
Special Edition series” – the Bf-109F fighter – a very popular aircraft that
saw some of the decisive fighting of WWII. We have the book and have read it
and well telly you what we thought
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MONOGRAPHS SPECIAL EDITION 01
Marek J. Murawski
184 pages
228 B/W photos,44 colour profiles
20 sheets of 1/48 and 1/72 scale drawings + A2 size sheet
printed on both sides 1/32 scale drawings
A4 portrait - (210x297 mm) Soft cover
English language.
ISBN 978-83-62878-49-9
Price: €23.59
This is a special edition of the new series of monographs
from Kagero Publishing of Poland. This company has seen something of a
re-launching recently. The books are mostly in English now – they are easier to
follow and somewhat updated from their original states – this however is a new
title – and a good subject to choose as well. The Bf 109F saw much of the
action of the Second World War – most notably in some of the decisive battles –
many of which are covered here in this book, there are plenty of subjects from
a variety of theatres to cover.
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Physically this book is printed on glossy paper with a thick
but flexible soft cover in portrait format A4 size- (210x297 mm) The pictures
inside (of which there are 228 are in black and white but these are supplemented
by fourty four excellent colour profiles of the “Frederic.” This is topped off
with several plans in the book in 1/72 and 1/48th as well as a
fold-out A2 sheet of diagrams in 1/32nd scale to suit the Hasegawa
and Trumpeter kits. The book is written totally in English language so there isn’t
any skipping between texts – the thick, weighty feel of the book is all therefore
even better because unlike some books with dual text where the page count is
high but there is half the info in the book. I like this approach a lot better.
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The book is broken up into chapters firstly describing the
variants of the aircraft – then the service record, then the technical details,
drawings of it and the equipment it carried and topped off with several
profiles and reference pictures – that is it – and for the price it’s all a
little too good to be true - but in deeper we got to tell you a little more
about the details of each..
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The first chapter explains, after an action packed introduction
the progression of the Bf 109F series from the prototype to the F-6 series until
the “G” model then took over production priorities. You get a lot of insight
into the changes made from variant to variant as well as an insight into some
of the experimental and test aircraft used in the development.
Of interesting note especially to me was the long list of
fix requests sent to the ministry after the first “F-2’s” models were adopted.
It surely was very thorough list! Insights like this and the rest of this
chapter help you understand much better the aircraft and it’s strengths and
weaknesses. There are excellent pictures that go along with this section with
some rare types as well.
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The next chapter of the book discusses the “Freidrich’s” service
from in Western Europe over the coastal areas of France. From autumn 1940
through till the month of May in 1942 this aircraft’s history is described for
the reader. Actions of it’s pilots fighting mainly the RAF over the coastal
areas are described in a very interesting style which really reminded me of the
British experiences I have read of the same time.
Aces like Werner Mölders are featured prominently in this
section and one can’t believe that these aces could score so many victories
without themselves succumbing to the enemy’s guns. Several types of operations
were described, from fighter sweeps to anti-shipping and coastal ops, a very
interesting scuffle between fighters and low flying Lancasters was particularly
good to read as well.
We go straight from the Western front to the Mediterranean
and Malta theatres – straight into the fray with operations by the deserted
Freidrichs firstly over the Maltese Island, this is accompanied with some great
shots of the aircraft on Italian and Sicilian airfields. JG 53 and JG 27’s “F”
aircraft feature heavily in this section of the book.
We hear recollections from actions in that Mediterranean theatre
where the superior diving performance bred the tactics of the German pilots
against the P-40’s, hurricanes and spitfires of the enemy. The book highlights
some of the aces of that conflict like Shulz, Stahlscmidt and most notably the “Star
of Afrika” Hans Joachim Marseille. We even get a window into the tactics used
by this man, one of the most interesting aces of the Luftwaffe, including a
story from his “100th” kill sortie.
Even though we have an overlap of six pages where we see
some aircraft from the next chapter that isn’t that bad of a thing is it? The
other very minor point I have is this part of the book has less of a strategic
overview, so you sometimes have no idea of where the fighters are operating.
This however is corrected in the next chapter of the “F” marque’s operations
over the Soviet Union.
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Next we go into the massive conflict on the eastern front
and the part the Bf 109F played in that massive theatre. We get a breakdown of
the territory that dominated the battle before we go to the aircraft in their
jump off in Poland we follow many units from the summer of 1941 onwards East.
From early victories against a poorly equipped and trained Soviet
Air Force flying I-15 and LaGG3 fighters we see the story unwind as it heads
east. There are a lot of machines from JG51 captured here with the distinctive
hawk on the nose as well as some whitewashed aircraft as the winter took hold
on that front. The fighting goes on in this part of the book into mid-1942 and
we read about and see more aircraft from JG53 and JG54 in more temperate
schemes. To top off this historical account we read into the differences in
tactics, aircraft and pilots from both sides on the Eastern front.
A small section is devoted to the foreign owners of the “Freidrich”
– the Spanish and Italians, Hungarians, Swiss and Finnish being the main users –
but even captured aircraft in RAF and the USAAF are mentioned. Before the
finish of this part of the book we also have an interesting passage on
camouflage and markings of the “F” version.
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Next is a very visual part of the book. In information
gleaned from technical manuals of the Bf 109F we see the insides and workings
of this aircraft and its design features. Although in German (and in gothic
text) it is a really interesting feature for the modeller interested in detail –
and if you are a German speaker it is a bonus – and no this section does not
mean it is a bi-lingual book!
This section transitions into blueprint style of technical
scale drawings of the aircraft in 1/72nd, 48th and 32nd
scales –of which the larger scale drawings, are provided on a separate A2
sheet. This is great for larger scale modellers who need room to move. It is
really nice for me to see them included with the more popular smaller scales.
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Lastly we see the many colours of this aircraft in a series
of 44 colour profiles over several pages. There are certain important aircraft
highlighted like the aircraft of Geissler, Willius,Bronnle,Schwaiger,,
Sinner,Carganico, and of course Marseilles in more detail with top down and
wingtip colours and the latter in pictures whilst the other aircraft are shown
in one side on profile. There are certainly plenty of very nice looking
aircraft here to choose from – several known to Bf 109 fans.
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Well that is all - and I for one am gutted this aircraft was
replace because that is the end of the book – although at nearly 200 pages this
book isn’t just a technical achievement which covers nearly every facet of this
aircraft it is also an engaging read. Especially when you get into the pilot’s
accounts which are always the best parts of books like this.
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A great start to the new Monographs collection from Kagero –
I hope their other new books are just as good
Well done.
Adam Norenberg.
