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This book looks at the first two years of the combat career of the Junkers Ju 88, probably the most succesful German aircraft of the Second World War, and certainly the most flexible, serving as a bomber, night fighter, torpedo bomber, reconnaissance aircraft and flying bomb during its career. During the period we are looking at here it was mainly used as a bomber, and was the newest and most capable of the Luftwaffe’s force of medium bombers.
The Ju 88 was just entering service when war broke out, so played a very minor part in the fighting in Poland. We start with a series of photographs of the prototypes and early variants of the aircraft, before moving on to its role in the campaign in the west in 1940 and the Battle of Britain. We then look at its role in the Blitz, where it was becoming increasingly important, and finish with a chapter on its use in training.
For me the main strength of this book is the captions. This is often a weakness in books of photographs, with short uninformative captions, sometimes repeating text from chapter introductions. That isn’t isn’t the case here. The author has done a great deal of research on the aircrew and aircraft featured in the pictures, and where possible we get a significant amount of detail on both, starting with the context of the picture itself, and often covering the eventual fate of any aircrew seen, as well as the known career and fate of the aircraft. It is these detailed captions that give the book its value, making it more than simply a collection of photographs.
Chapters
Early Development
The Fall of France and Battle of Britain
The Blitz
Training
Author: 2017
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 147
Publisher: Frontline
Year: 2017