The Luftwaffe's first really effective bomber was the He-111. Prior to that, the honor goes to converted Ju-52 transports as previous bombers were generally obsolescent when new! Though initially underpowered, the He-111 was used with success in the Spanish Civil War, where many German weapons systems were tried in combat. The experiences learned there were later transferred to other aircraft and improvements made where needed.

This book by Manfred Griehl covers all the early He-111's; the ones with the 'stepped' forward fuselage. These also had more rounded and complex to build wings, which were later modified in the F and G series aircraft to something easier to construct.

The author provides a general breakdown of the different versions to start the book. Then he goes into the operational use of the aircraft with the Luftwaffe. Finally, its use during the Spanish Civil War. This section is followed by a page of charts with a brief listing of the variants and the various prototypes.

The rest of the book is full of very nice period photographs of the aircraft. Most of these photos were new to me and it was quite nice to not see the same standard images that have been used over and over again. The inside of both covers include very nice profiles and a three view. I'd have liked to have seen more of this so perhaps AirDOC might take that into consideration for future volumes.

The book itself is in both English and German. I did find a few odd syntax uses in the English part of things, but nothing that would detract from the readability of the book. I also found the faded background images used behind the writing to be distracting and it made the page more difficult for me to read. I know it is considered 'artsy', but I really wish the background was just a plain white. Same for the captions on the images, which have little grey 'bars' behind parts of them.

Overall, it is an excellent book to have if one wants a nice background book on the early He-111. It is one the both modelers and enthusiasts alike will find of interest and one that I can well recommend to you.

August  2006

My thanks to AirDoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct by e-mailing them at www.airdoc.eu

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