It was said of the Fokker D.VII that the airplane was so good that "it made the average pilot good and the good pilot great." Fortunately for the Allies, though the D.VII entered combat in late April, it did not appear in numbers on the Western Front until the summer of 1918. By that time, Allied air superiority in sheer numbers was nearly overwhelming, and the shortage of aviation gasoline and other items limited German operations. At the end of the war, the Allies paid it the ultimate compliment of naming it specifically in the Versailles Treaty as war booty for which all examples must be turned over to the victors. No other airplanes were so listed.

      In “Fokker D.VII Aces of World War 1, Part 1" (No. 53 in the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces series), authors Norman Franks and Greg Van Wyngarden covered the German aces who flew in the Jagdstaffeln that formed the four Jagdgeschwadern equipped with the Fokker D.VII in the last six months of the war. This second volume covers the aces who flew in Jagdstaffeln that were not part of a Jagdgeschwader, and the aces of the Marineflieger Jagdstaffeln. Included in the current volume are such aces as Josef Jacobs of Jasta 7, Carl Degelow of Jasta 40, Gotthard Sachsenberg of MFJ I, Harald Auffarth of Jasta 29, Josef Mai of Jasta 5, and August Raben of Jasta 18.  While not as well known as such aces as Ernst Udet, Lothar von Richtofen, Josef Veltjens, Bruno Loerzer, Georg von Hantelman, or Rudolf Berthold, the pilots of these independent Jastas fought the British on the northern front and the Americans at the end of the war, giving good account of themselves and their units.

      Norman Franks, a full-time author and aviation historian, with more than 40 titles to his credit, is a recognized expert on air warfare history of both the First and Second World Wars.  His books “Above the Trenches, “Over the Front” and Above the Lines” are considered essential reference works on the subject of First World War aviation.  This current volume is a good introduction for the aviation enthusiast who is not deeply knowledgeable on the fliers and aircraft of the First World War, though it also provides information for the serious researcher.  Co-author Greg Van Wyngarden has developed a reputation in recent years for deciphering the colors and markings of German fighters of the period.  Thus, the two authors provide good information for the modeler who wants to take maximum advantage of the new Roden Fokker D.VII kits.  Harry Dempsey’s color profiles provide a lot of ideas for markings possibilities.

      Overall, this reviewer found information here I was not previously aware of about these lesser-known aces. Since decals exist from various sources to do many of these aircraft, the stimulation of the book could lead to some interesting additions to my World War I collection. 

     Highly recommended.

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