Luftwaffe Colours Series
Jagdwaffe Volume One Section 1 - Birth of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force
Jagdwaffe Volume One Section 2 - The Spanish Civil War
Jagdwaffe Volume One Section 3 - Bliztkrieg and Sitzkrieg 1939-1940
Jagdwaffe Volume One Section 4 - Attack in the West - May 1940
All titles authored by Eric Mombeek with J.Richard Smith and Eddie Creek. Illustrations by Tom Tullis, Eddie Creek and Arthur Bentley. Published by Classic Publications, 1999.
This first volume of four titles, in what has expanded into a multi-volume, multi-title series, is quite a reference work, and is useful to modelers and enthusiasts alike. Each book contains, on average, at least 250 black and white photos and a couple dozen excellent quality color profiles with numerous smaller illustrations showing markings detail, etc.
Section 1,
Birth of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force, begins with the last days of the Great War, the very early days of post-Versaille restricted civil aviation and goes on through the thirties to when Arado and Heinkel fighters filled the skies over Germany.
The state airline, Lufthansa, and the German brand of barnstorming as exhibited by the likes of Willi Stör and Ernst Udet are covered, as are the humble beginnings of the new Luftwaffe's training program which doubled as a great national sport in Germany: flying gliders and sail-planes.
The book ends up with the aforementioned Arados and Heinkels as well as a sleek, new fighter which was just beginning to enter service en masse in the late thirties. This aircraft, manufactured by der Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (later to be renamed Messerschmitt AG), signaled the dawn of a new era in aerial combat and would prove to be the equal to any enemy aircraft in the early days of the coming war in Europe.
Section 2,
The Spanish Civil War, chronicles the German Jagdwaffe's participation in this conflict from the early days of secrecy in August, 1936 to the formation of the Legion Condor in November of that same year, ending with final victory for the Nationalist forces in March, 1939.
Jagdgruppe 88, the fighter arm of the Legion Condor, is well covered here with most of the attention being layed upon the two prime fighter types to see use in Spain; the He 51 and the Bf 109. Other aircraft are also represented; the Arado 68 and He 112 as well as the obligatory cameos by other Legion Condor types and, of course, the opposition.
The book ends with the withdrawal of the Legion Condor in May, 1939 and the final three pages form a mini-feature called "Prelude to Poland 1939". The aircraft illustrated on these last three pages are Bf 109E-1's of JG 51, JG 132 (later JG 26) and JG 331 (later JG 77).
Section 3,
Bliztkrieg and Sitzkrieg 1939-1940, shows the Jagdwaffe gearing up for war and then, finally, entering combat.
This book is my favorite of the four in this volume as it shows the period in which some of the most interesting camouflage colors and markings transitions began to occur, especially in the nature of experimental schemes. The wild paint jobs which began to appear on JG 53 aircraft during this time period are among my favorites of the entire war, rivalled only by those used later by JG 54, in the East.
This book is pretty much all Bf 109 with three notable exceptions...
The He 100 (aka He 113) is covered very well, with 5 pages containing 20 photos, (one in color) one color profile and a couple of illustrations showing some of the spurious unit markings used in the propaganda photos of this 'new fighter' which never entered service. This section of the book ends with the development of another new fighter which did enter service and which gave the Allies a major headache for a time...
Three pages, 9 photos and one color profile are dedicated to the 'Kunstflugstaffel' which was the Luftwaffe's Aerobatic Team of 1938-39. This team was originally formed to perform at a military air show in Arlon, Belgium during 1938, intending to show off the flying skills of the 'new' Luftwaffe. The pilots came from I.(J)/LG 2 and the aircraft flown was the Bü 133 Jungmeister. Several other performances were made before hostilities commenced in September, 1939.
The third feature of non-109 material, although it only consists of two photos, a color profile, and an illustration of the unit insignia, is the coverage given to the experimental night-fighting Ar 68's of JG 72. This little vignette has proven, to myself anyway, to be the most interesting part of this book.
Section 4,
Attack in the West - May 1940 begins with the Sitzkrieg (Phoney War) still in 'full swing'. But, as the title implies, the book soon dives into the April, 1940 invasion of Denmark and Norway as well as the invasion of France, Belgium and Holland, in May.
This book is truly all Bf 109 with the lone exception being a photo and profile of a Bf 108 from JG 53.
The highlights of this book lay, again, with the colors and markings of the various units within the Jagdwaffe. There are a few examples of non-standard paint schemes, but the illustrated markings and unit insignia of the various staffeln and gruppen take the prize here.
There was a time when many historians, researchers and enthusiasts thought that there was little variation in the colors and markings of the Luftwaffe. These first four books in the Classic Colours Series go a long way in proving that time to be long past...
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