In mid-1942, the German Army in Russia was on a roll. While it had been stopped short of Moscow by a devastatingly cold winter, in the south things were going much better. The goal was the Soviet oil production facilities in the Caucuses and it very much looked like that goal would be reached.

Paramount to being able to reach this goal was defeating defending Soviet forces and in this case, the Luftwaffe was a major player. However, any time an army moves so far so quickly, supplies become an issue, as well as what is happening in other parts of the front.

Unfortunately for the Germany army and fortunately for the Soviets, the Luftwaffe was spread pretty thin and hampered by a lack of spare parts and at times, fuel. No sooner did the army make gains, thanks in a large part to having air superiority, when units would have to be pulled out and sent to another hot spot on the eastern front. This left army commanders woefully short of air support and this was often the difference between doing well and having an attack fail.

All during this time, the fighter pilots were building up huge scores against those Soviet air forces thrown at it. However, thanks to losses, the number of experienced pilots was in a slow and steady decline, while the Soviets gained strength thanks to the increase in production from factories moved just a year or so before. This loss in air strength also was felt with the bomber and ground attack units as they were shuffled around. It would not be too far off to say that the loss of bomber and ground attack assets was probably a bigger part of the equation of success than the loss of fighter units to protect them.

As most of you know, the Germans never were able to reach their goal, and this book covers the time period from May to August 1942 when the Army and the Luftwaffe were on the move towards the Caucuses. The book is chock full of images and pilot stories during this time of success. In addition to the great photos are a goodly number of profiles of the aircraft involved in this sector of the front.

It makes for a very enjoyable read concerning the pilots and crews in this sector as well as a nice history of the campaign in general. It is a book that I found to be most interesting and can easily recommend to you.

February 2013

Review book courtesy of the fine folks at www.casematepublishing.com where you can get this and other fine books. 

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