This new addition to the very popular Air War Archive series follows the established pattern of concise text, captions, extended captions and lavish illustration. The subject was one of the most important German aircraft of WWII but one that is difficult to place within the many different aircraft types – Very Highly Recommended.
NAME: Air War Archive, Junkers Ju 88, The Early Years – Blitzkrieg to the Blitz, Rare Luftwaffe Photographs From Wartime Collections FILE: R2618 AUTHOR: Chris Goss PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: soft back PAGES: 147 PRICE: £14.99 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: WWII, World War II, World War 2, Second World War, dive bomber, medium bomber, ground attack, anti-shipping bomber, UAV, Luftwaffe, Multi-Role Combat Aircraft, MRCA, twin engine warplane ISBN: 1-84832-475-8 IMAGE: B2618.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/y9fso6gd LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This new addition to the very popular Air War Archive series follows the established pattern of concise text, captions, extended captions and lavish illustration. The subject was one of the most important German aircraft of WWII but one that is difficult to place within the many different aircraft types – Very Highly Recommended. The timing of WWII was not of Germany's intentional making. Hitler always considered that he would eventually dominate Europe as a condition of invading the Soviet Union and making it an area of colonial expansion, or Living Space. He also considered that it would become necessary to invade and conquer the United States. He hoped that much of this expansion of German interest and rule would be achieved without having to fight on the battlefield. His early success in ignoring France and Britain and expanding into neighbouring territory encouraged a belief that he would achieve such a dominant position that he would be able to force treaties on France and Britain before marching his troops into the Soviet Union. That belief created the environment in which the Germans re-armed and began a long term development of weapons for use in 1944-45 or later. The result was that the first wave of Luftwaffe equipment saw a concentration on first generation metal monoplanes that were primarily intended to support advancing Panzer Armies and bombard fixed points of military or civilian occupation. The tactics were rehearsed in Spain during the Spanish Civil War and included the terror bombing of Guernica. As the Germans faced no direct and equal opposition in the air in Spain, and a similar situation applied during the invasion of Poland, there was nothing to dispute the belief in Germany invincibility. The Ju 87 Stuka was already obsolescent in 1939, but continued to build its myth until it faced the RAF in the opening stage of the Battle of Britain. The Ju 88 was intended as a replacement for the Ju 87 and several other German bomber aircraft. It was a significant advance, proving fast enough to elude most fighters at the beginning of the war. Unlike the Stuka, the Ju 88 was a medium bomber that could also be used effectively as a dive bomber, but its primary duty was still considered to be the support of the German Army in the field. Like the other German bomber designs, the Ju 88 accommodated a small crew close together in the nose of the aircraft, with manually operated single rifle calibre machine guns. Unlike the early designs, such as the Do 17 and He 111, the Ju 88 did have a much more effective performance and flexibility that made it suitable to be adapted to take on different roles, eventually being pressed into service as a night fighter. As a result, it has been compared to the RAF Mosquito, although the Mosquito was in a class of its own, easy to equip for one role and rapidly be re-equipped for a different role, able to operate at very high speed and high altitude or undertake very fast low level sorties. Unlike the Ju88, the Mosquito had a two man crew and a heavy cannon and machine gun armament in the nose, fired by the pilot The author has provided an effective history of the early years of the Ju 88 and the selection of photographs is first rate.