This is another of Osprey's 'Aces' books and concentrates on one of the lesser know WWI German fighter units, Jagdstaffel 17. In concert with the other warring powers, air combat was not something that was routine in the first years of WWI. For the most part, aircraft were used for observation and reconnaissance with pursuit planes being a rather recent addition to the arsenal of nations in 1916.

Jagdstaffel 17 started out as just a few Fokker Eindekkers and a Halberstadt D-type at the German base in Metz, whose purpose was to fend off enemy bombers and observation types. As 1916 neared an end, it was obvious that these few planes (which were later replaced by other types as aircraft effectiveness was short-lived) were not enough and on 11 November 1916, Jagdstaffel 17 was formed.

The unit never had the bevy of stars that one associates with other groups, but it did have some stand out pilots like Julius Buckler and Georg Strasser to name a few. Even one infamous member, Hermann Goering. The unit was, like others, shuffled around from one hot spot to another throughout the war, fighting from farmer's fields and proper air fields. Crews were often billeted a distance away from the aerodrome to keep the pilots from being killed by the sometimes frequent air attacks.

Like all WWI German units, the aircraft of Jagdstaffel 17 were often rather colorfully painted. By far the most used types were by Albatross with a few Pfalz tossed in the mix and the Fokker D.VII making an appearance late in the war.

In line with other books in this series, there are a ton of well done period photographs as well as the usual large center section of full color profiles of the planes that were flown by the unit during the war. Readers are fortunate that we know a lot about the unit as the official unit history survived hostilities and some of its pilots wrote books about their experiences. While undoubtedly embellished to make them more exciting to read, combining these books with the official record gives us a rather complete look at Jagdstaffel 17's war record. We get many of their mission stories to spice things up, one of the major attractions of this series. In the appendices is a listing of aces tand their scores. An excellent read and a great reference book for the WWI aircraft modeler. Pick it up when you see it.

January 2014

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