Volume 3/4 continues with the war in Russia. It basically covers 1942, a year when the Germans were pushing to the south and in the north had surrounded Leningrad in hopes of using siege tactics to capture the city.

In the usual format of historical background interspersed with personal commentary, one gets a sense of what it was like to live and fight during that time.

What particularly surprised me was the small number of Luftwaffe units that were in combat. For the Jagdwaffe, the number of aircraft in any one sector was really quite small. Yet the pilots were able to rack up impressive scores against a determined enemy. The book also points out that both the Russians and Germans over-claimed in their victory tallies, giving each of them the impression that they were decimating the opposing forces. In most cases this was not exactly true, though the Soviets ability to continually pour in more men and materiel into the battle eventually wore away at Luftwaffe units as their high scoring aces were often taken out of the fight by either being killed, wounded, captured or brought home for rest and refit.

As with all the others in this series, the book is superbly illustrated with profiles of various aircraft. What is especially useful is that all the profiles are based on photographic evidence and that evidence is included in the book itself. I especially like that most of the photos are ones that I've not seen before in other publications and that adds to the 'newness' of the material.

This is an excellent series that will probably never be surpassed. Those who are interested in the Luftwaffe in general and the fighter force in particular need to have this series on their book shelves.

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