Kagero's fine series on famous aircraft now continues with its thirteenth edition, this one on the Junkers Ju-88.

Developed in the late 1930s as a fast bomber that would be able to out-run current fighters, the Ju-88 suffered a somewhat protracted development stemming from the requirement to be a dive bomber, something that plagued German bomber development of all sorts. Though rarely used in this role, one thing it did was to produce a robust airframe that was capable of taking a lot of damage and also allowed it to be developed into an incredible array of sub-variants. Like the He-111, it was used as a transport, maritime bomber and unlike the 111, it was developed into destroyer, reconnaissance aircraft, and night fighter versions.

This first volume covers the development of the aircraft and breaks down the different variants. It also contains information on camouflage used as well as providing outstanding drawings of the early bomber varieties. Included in this edition is a pull out set of plans for the Ju-88A-1 in 1/48 scale. This will be particularly useful to those modelers wanting to do the early Battle of Britain version, using the Dragon/ProModeler A-4 kit as a basis. The drawings in the book are to 1/72 scale and show all the differences between sub-variants up to the Ju-88A-4. Like all Kagero books it is in dual languages; Polish and English. I found it to be very readable and lacking in the syntax glitches that can make dual language books difficult to read.

Included in the book are decals for three aircraft. A change from previous sheets is that this one includes insignia. What this does is to limit the number of options that one can do with the sheet. On a personal note, I find that I preferred the older method of just giving unique markings as I can always use the kit or aftermarket insignia.

Overall, this is really an outstanding book on the Ju-88. It is especially good for those of us who have trouble with the differing versions of this aircraft. As such, it is a book that is highly recommended.

March 2005

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