As we are getting into the final volumes, this one covers the Mediterranean Theater from 1943 until the end of the war. Though initially quite successful, the Jagdwaffe in the Med (and that means basically Italy) was slowly being reduced to a level where it could not function well. This was caused by two things. One is that units were slowly being pulled out for use in Northern Europe in the advent of the Normandy invasion and for use in home defense.

This resulted in more of the burden being put on what few Jagdwaffe units were still there in country. After the collapse of the Italian government in late 1943, there was some boosting of fighter units by Fascist Italian squadrons. Eventually nearly all of the air defense was put to those units as the Luftwaffe had more pressing areas to defend from an ever increasing and near overwhelming Allied superiority in the air. Only in the Aegean were things relatively calm, but here there was little Luftwaffe presence anyway.

Volume 4/4 is very much like all the rest in the series and that means it is excellent. There is the usual linear historical presence, interspersed with pilot and crew stories so that we can get a feel of what it was like to serve in this theater of operation. There are the outstanding profiles that we have come to expect. As with all the Classic books in this series, these profiles are based on photographs that accompany the art work.

If you are like me, you'll learn new things from every edition. This one brought to light that II./JG 77 operated Macchi C.205s for two months before handing the aircraft over to Italian units. During that time, they were only successful in claiming two victories!

Another sterling publication and one that is an absolute must for your library.

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