DKW und die Erla Me-Flugzeuge 1926 bis 1945

Karl-Dieter Seifert, Sutton Verlag GmbH, Erfurt, Germany, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86680-852-2. Illustrated, softcover, published in German.

Cover image © by Sutton Verlag GmbH, 2011.

Karl-Dieter Seifert's DKW und die Erla Me-Flugzeuge 1926 bis 1945 [DKW And Erla Me Aircraft 1926 To 1945] is a true gem. A relatively thin book (at 128 pages), it sheds light on an important but thus far somewhat insufficiently covered and therefore largely unknown facet of German aviation history - the inception of the Erla aircraft factory, and that company's difficult path towards becoming one of Germany's most important aircraft manufacturers of the Second World War. It is notable, for example, that Erla built roughly one third of all Messerschmitt Bf 109s produced. Erla's average daily output of Bf 109s in 1944 was 12 aircraft, in spite of massive supply problems and constant bombing of its manufacturing plants.

Erla was established in 1933 as a small joint venture between sports and sailplane designer Franz Xaver Mehr and Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen's DKW car and motor factory. Erla was originally intended to simply produce the small, single-seat Erla Me 5 sports aircraft, designed by Mehr (hence the "Me" designation). With the rise of the Third Reich and the increasing efforts to re-arm Germany in anticipation of a new war, Erla began to be involved in the license production of military aircraft. By the end of the war, Erla was scheduled to produce Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H fighters. Production activities were by then widely dispersed and/or undertaken by disguised manufacturing facilities operating under code names.

By necessity, the focal point of Seifert's DKW und die Erla Me-Flugzeuge 1926 bis 1945 often lies on Mehr's personal biography, as he remained one of the most noteworthy individuals involved with Erla throughout the company's existence. Mehr found it difficult to relinquish his aspirations to improve upon his early sports aeroplane designs in favour of the demands of the German air ministry (RLM). He even financed some of the work on his later designs from his own salary. Still, the realities of Germany's political course meant that these designs remained prototypes and never entered mass production. Unfortunately, much of Mehr's life is still shrouded in mystery.

DKW und die Erla Me-Flugzeuge 1926 bis 1945 mainly investigates the uneasy balance between Mehr's visions and Erla's inexorable conversion from a small aircraft company to a hugely important military aircraft manufacturer, in the timeframe from the company's inception to the outbreak of the war. This includes the complex and often questionable personal and financial machinations employed to force Erla to align with the RLM's intentions. Erla's further destiny during the war and immediately after the cessation of hostilities is only fleetingly covered on a few pages.

Nonetheless, the book is an extremely absorbing read, and the text further benefits from the inclusion of some 70 mainly unpublished photos and facsimile documents. For anyone truly interested in German sports and paramilitary aviation of the 1920s and 1930s, even these photos alone are reason enough to purchase this little book - as evidenced, for example, by its very cover image.

LO+ST - Snapshots Of The Wrecked/Captured Luftwaffe Aircraft Taken By GIs From 1944 To The Defeat Of Germany

Hideki Noro, Dai Nippon Kaiga Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, 2009, ISBN 978-4-499-22992-0. Illustrated, softcover (with dust jacket), published in Japanese, photo captions in Japanese and English.

Cover image © by Dai Nippon Kaiga Co., 2009.

This truly astonishing softcover book is among the most recent exponents of what is by now a well-established and highly engaging category of Luftwaffe-related releases: the photo album-type publication. The pioneer of this concept was probably Karl Ries, whose legendary Dora Kurfürst und die rote 13 photo books (published by Verlag Dieter Hoffmann, Germany) revolutionized the presentation of the results of Luftwaffe research in the 1960s. Although obviously primitive and utterly imperfect by today's standards, the photo captions contained in Ries' books provided the reader perhaps for the first time with unprecedented photo interpretation detail.

Uwe Feist's Luftwaffe in Action series of landscape-format softcovers (published by Squadron/Signal Publications in the US), continued the concept, beginning in 1971. But it was really the distinguished Heinz Birkholz who took it to the next level. In 1974, he launched PM-Foto Revue as an offspring to Germany's Plastik Modell magazine, of which he was the editor. PM-Foto Revue featured photos submitted from the private collections of the writers and readers of Plastik Modell. Unfortunately, the publisher, G. Schmidt-Verlag, ceased operations just as PM-Foto Revue was released.

But Birkholz and his editorial team went on to found the new periodical Modell Magazin, which, starting in 1975, covered both scale models and aviation history, and subsequently became one of the most important and influential publications within the growing Luftwaffe research community. In 1976, following the example set by Plastik Modell, Modell Magazin introduced Modell Magazin Foto Archiv, its own offspring softcover photo album. Published sporadically until the early 1980s, Modell Magazin Foto Archiv again featured photos submitted by the writers and readers of the magazine and thus exposed uncounted previously unseen photographic treasures to a wider audience.

When Modell Magazin changed direction and content in the mid-1980s, Birkholz left and established a new magazine, Flugzeug, dedicated entirely to aviation, both in scale and history. In 1988, Flugzeug continued the tradition of its predecessors by launching an infrequently published offspring softcover photo album, Flugzeug Archiv. One final time, history repeated itself when Birkholz left Flugzeug to establish Jet & Prop in 1991. The by now inevitable offspring periodical, Jet & Prop Foto Archiv, was first published in 1992 and continues, sporadically, up to today.

Recent decades have seen an outright proliferation of Luftwaffe-related photo album-type publications. From Alfred Price's The Luftwaffe 1939-1945 volumes (in the Warbirds Illustrated series by Arms and Armour Press, England, 1981), for example, or the various Luftwaffe Warbirds Photo Albums (Tank Magazine special issues by Delta Publishing Co. Ltd., Japan, 1992 to 1994), to current releases such as Eagle Editions' outstanding Wings of the Black Cross or Axel Urbanke's exceptional Luftwaffe im Focus series (by Luftfahrtverlag-Start, Germany). There are many others, the concept thriving not least due to the existence of uncounted astounding photos once taken by victorious allied troops during their advance through late-war Germany.

Hideki Noro's LO+ST focuses on such late-war and post-war photos. Sized a modest 257 x 210mm, the book still feels substantial. Consisting of 192 pages, its 272 black & white photos are printed on semi-matt, high-quality paper, the book is clearly laid out and nicely designed and also features a glossy dust jacket. Its five chapters are divided by geographic location: Northern Germany, Central Germany, Southern Germany, neighboring nations, and unknown locations.

The photos presented are truly engrossing and of great interest to any student of the late-war German Luftwaffe; at times they are outright stunning due to the subject and detail contained therein. Even the very first photos of the book, one of a damaged Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-14/AS "Black 10", in Regensburg in 1945, and one of a light blue Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6/AS nightfighter with antennae, are absolutely striking. A great number of the photos have either never been published before or have only very rarely been seen.

LO+ST focuses almost exclusively on fighter aircraft. Among the aircraft covered are Fw 190 V65 CS+IA, numerous Fw 190 D-9s, JG 301 aircraft at Stendal (such as Ta 152 H-0, Werknummer 150007), Ar 234, Me 262, Ta 152 H, Ta 152 E, Bf 109 K-4, Ta 154, Fw 190 D-11 at Bad Wörishofen, He 111, and uncounted Bf 109 Gs and Fw 190 As and Fs. It will take many hours to seriously absorb and digest the wealth of photographic material presented here.

If there exists a drawback to LO+ST, it might be that the majority of the book is written in Japanese. This includes the (limited) text as well as all photo captions. Brief English translations are provided for all photo captions, but these are limited to the most crucial data (such as the aircraft type and location) and are nowhere near as detailed as the extensive Japanese captions seem to be. This is of course a pity, and it will undoubtedly keep many of those interested in the German Luftwaffe but unable to read Japanese from buying the book.

A decision to pass on LO+ST would be an utter shame, however, as is the case for many Luftwaffe-related specialist publications produced in Japan. It is my firm opinion that the professionalism and attention to detail which characterizes so many Luftwaffe books from Japan makes it readily possible to ignore the language barrier for any serious researcher or student of the Luftwaffe. In fact, the abundance of vital information available by means of the visual content of these publications is simply indispensable and easily offsets any inconvenience caused by an inability to understand the Japanese text.

Focke Wulf Jagdflugzeug Fw 190 A, Fw 190 "Dora", Ta 152 H

Peter Rodeike, Struve-Druck, Eutin, Germany, 1998, ISBN 3-923457-44-8. Illustrated, hardcover, published in German.

Although this is a truly substantial book at 444 pages, a format of 22 x 30 cm/8.5 x 12", and hundreds of photos and drawings, very little actually needs to be said about it. There simply exists no better single reference work on the Fw 190/Ta 152, and it will be many years before one will be published - if ever.

The photos are accompanied by very thorough and well-researched captions which address technical details, differences between the individual Fw 190 subtypes and developments, and variations of camouflage and markings. In addition to illustrating the various versions of the Fw 190 to perfection, the photo content of the book contains some real treasures. Interspersed are drawings specifying the particular features of every (fighter and trainer) version of the Fw 190. Most of these excellent detail drawings have been taken from the aircraft handbook, while the line drawings have been created specifically for this book.

Also included are technical data and (German language) text describing the development of the aircraft, along with lists of the Werknummern and corresponding manufacturer. Rodeike's magnum opus closes with 29 color profiles and further information in the appendix.

If pressed to find a shortcoming in this book, it would probably have to be the relative brevity of the chapter dealing with the Ta 152. Comparing the sheer numbers of Fw 190s built with the small numbers of Ta 152s actually manufactured, even this "flaw" might be explained.

Worth every penny of its purchase price.

(Amended version of a review I originally posted on the discussion forum of Hyperscale.com on December 6, 2002.)