Considered something of a 'backwater', the Austro-Hungarian front has not had a lot of attention paid to it. I guess it is because there wasn't the sort of heavy trench warfare that one got on the Western Front. Even less written about was the Russian front, but that is left for another time.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was really a rather tenuous confederation of Austria and Hungary with nothing really being able to be done without the agreement of both sides. This causes some issues as you might imagine. There was also the problem that neither side was as industrialized as the western powers. This caused problems in terms of equipment for all of their services. Without the heavy industry of Germany or the UK, the A-H Empire was unable to design and produce weapons in the quantity they would have liked. So, as frequently happens, they had to rely on the designs of others, modified for local use. One of those designs was the Albatros D.II and D.III.

Local A-H designs tended to range from fair to poor, with the introduction of the Brandenburg D.I (called the KD in service) causing considerable concern due to its dangerous handling traits. It tended to kill a lot more pilots than the enemy and while a skilled pilot could do well with it, it was not good to have a plane where one had to pay more attention to keeping it in the air and on the mission.

Fortunately, it was decided to build the Albatros D.II and later D.III under license. These were built of stronger materials than the original German design so there were not the wing shedding issues that plagued the Germans. However, there was a problem with the spinners departing the aircraft so many were flown without them. Later modifications changed the look of the front end of the plane to where a spinner wasn't needed and it actually increased the speed of the aircraft.

The main opponent in the air were the Italians. It is fortunate for the A-H pilots that the Italians were not all that aggressive nor that well trained. They were generally easily defeated in the air as is attested by the rather goodly number of men who made ace against them. Not to say they were super easy targets as there were many Italian aces as well, but that until the last year of the war, the AH air force was able to keep air superiority in the areas they flew.

Like other books in this series, the author has a look at the build up of the AH air force as well as the aircraft they used. In any war, the number of units grew as the need required and the same here. The author has devoted several pages to showing the increasing order of battle in this regard that includes the planes they flew. As this book is on Albatros aces, those successes gained by pilots flying other types are not fully covered. However, their missions flying the Albatros are. In addition to the usual 'there I was' tales, there are a goodly number of period photographs of these planes. I have to say that seeing something different like this is a real delight. As is the norm with Osprey books, there are several pages of full color profiles as well as a deeper explanation of these images in the appendices in the back of the book.

It all makes for a very interesting read, especially if you are looking for something a bit different from the norm. It is well written and tells the tales well. It was a book I very much enjoyed reading and can highly recommend it to you.

February 2013

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