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Morten Jessen & Andrew Arthy Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in the Battle for Sicily

Morten Jessen & Andrew Arthy

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in the Battle for Sicily

Authors: Morten Jessen & Andrew Arthy

Pages: 224

ISBN: 978-87-99335-20-6

Format: A4 Hardback (actually its bigger by a few centemetres in both dimensions than A4)

UK £49.99 from The Aviation Book centre

 

 

The Aviation Book Centre have sent me a very interesting book this month – it is an immaculately presented hardback book in a slightly larger allround than A4 format, 224 pages packed with colour and black and white pictures, colour profiles and maps, it is called "Focke Wulf Fw190 in the Battle for Sicily"

 

 

This first book in the series of the exploits of the Fw190 by these authors was called  "Focke Wulf Fw 190 in North Africa" which was less in pages and though a good book this is  a step forward in presentation, materiel and execution.

 

 

This, the second part of the Fw 190 series by Jessen and Arthy, details the exploits of the Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighter bombers, its pilots and supporting crews during the fight for Sicily, Sardinia and southern Italy. This book has one hundred and forty pictures (four in colour) plus eleven profiles of the Butcher bird and also its accompanying aircraft like the Bf-109 and the Spitfires who opposed them.

 

 

To devote this many pages to the defence of Sicily by a single aircraft type is a large task, to do it this book is broken up into many chapters, but before we even start there is a large list of contributors here, the authors have researched this book thoroughly, and have taken a lot of time to interview many veterans and experts from all around the world which are listed here. There is a double page spread showing a glossary and abbreviations better describing the words used to help out those amongst us who aren't familiar with them. Also interestingly are the Medals and awards from each country shown, with especially helpful the description in English of the words in German for the Luftwaffe awards of merit. - Anyone for a Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub ? (Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves)

 

 

The first Chapter opens with an excellent double page picture of Josef "Sepp" Enzensberger sitting on the side of his Focke Wulf's cockpit, a picture that really makes you take notice. Pictures like this are at the start of each paragraph and examples like this are littered throughout this book. The first chapter goes on to explain the state of play between the allies and the Germans after the fall of Tunisia and the state of the aerial defences in Sicily and southern Italy. Briefly touching on the overall commanders but examining in detail the breakup of the Luftwaffe personnel in these Fw 190 units that were tasked to protect the island from imminent allied invasion.

 

The book explains exactly WHY the Fw190 was suited for the attacking fighter bomber role, as the Stuka and twin engined "Zerstörers" already coming to the end of their useful operational lives in the daytime attack role. This chapter then goes into a day by day war diary of the units, fleshed out very well with eyewitness accounts and drawings, there are also helpful boxes of information in-between the main body of text about unit commanders and some of the airfields they flew from, as well as their reinforcements and pictures of crew, aircraft and a profile of a typical aircraft from the period.

 

 

The next chapter investigates the anti-shipping missions by the Focke-Wulf units in the Summer months of 1943. This chapter has a gain some very interesting insights into the claiming of a victim from aerial attack, the intricacies of how and what to report and the difficulties that arouse over the very strict method of reporting victories, facts like that if the ship could not be confirmed to the pilot, it was claimed by the Grouppe. This information is further flushed out in one of the coloured boxes  - a page long -  that described exactly the official wording and what NOT to report.

 

The discrepancies of anti-shipping kills by both the allies and the axis pilots in the war are examined in detail, things such as the pilots leaving the scene of attack in a hurry are cited as one of the better reasons for this! After this brief introduction the book then goes into a war diary form, covering the first week and a half up to the  11th of June 1943. Maps and letters home to bereaved loved ones accompany these day to day diaries. While the German pilots were maybe as busy as they possibly could trying to stem the shipping, the loss of the Island Pantelleria could not  be prevented and so gave the allies a stepping stone into the invasion of Sicily.

 

 

The prelude to the invasion by the allies of Sicily is then covered in the style of the chapters beforehand. An introduction to the state of stab SKG 10 is discussed, both the inexperience and the war weariness of the old heads is discussed, again in  tables on the side of the text, as well as losses for the group from March till June. The personnel and the breakdown of the unit is then discussed as were its commanders and their former experience in combat. Following this the book describes the units' actions from the twelfth of June till the 9th of July.

 

Excellent text of the raids undertaken and the attacks by the American Airforce are backed up excellently again by photographs of the crews, their efforts to hide their precious aircraft from the American aircraft , but more tellingly there is an excellent before and after shot of Castelvetrano airfield. The duels with American and English spitfires and P-40's are discussed and the profiles of Fw-190's and Bf-109s and again boxes of information such as the units transfers to the island add depth and understanding to the text.

 

 

This book "jumps" from unit to unit during the defence of Sicily, as is the nature of its spread out units. The next chapter covers the same period of time as the previous chapter but discusses the Schlachtgershcwader 2's deployment to Sardinia. After a short introduction the deployment, the book describes in day to day from again the unit's actions It seems thought that the biggest enemy of the pilots in this section was malaria or the American bombers. There are some interesting stories in this chapter though, the authors include some interesting firsthand accounts on  what the pilots did in that time to ease the tensions they faced.

 

Over the next few chapters of the invasion of Sicily and subsequent loss of the island, as well as the prelude to the invasion of Italy and Schlachtgershcwader 2's role in Italy and Sardinia are all discussed mostly in the same way as the chapters I have laid out here. Through these chapters are many of the structural elements of the first few chapters, added to in depth by maps and excellent photography. Backed up in turn by some hand drawn pictures by the pilots themselves of their actions, which are themselves a great addition to the book.

 

 

This book isn’t just a one layered story of Introduction/war diary then repeat - The story meanders through the defence by these fighters and their pilots of these islands and southern Italy. The individual stories of these chapters are quite interesting in their own merit and should be read in their natural form rather than uncovered in a review.

 

The one thing I did not like about the book, and it's probably just me is the use of footnotes to provide proof of the reference sources used, these to me are unnecessary and detract from any novel – maybe it's just me – but I think I am missing out if I don’t read the source of the asterix /number if they are provided, usually this is pointless and distracting from the main story. At least in this book they are at the foot of the page, and not crammed somewhere at the end of the book. But if footnotes are the biggest problem you have with a really polished, well written and researched book with excellent rare pictures like this you don’t have that big of a problem!

 

 

The back of the book is broken up into 10 appendices, which are kind of a separate book in themselves, that most would be happy to publish separate from this book. covering topics including four pages of incredibly detailed loss and victory lists, a page of (uncommon in this theatre)aerial victory claims, three pages of shipping claims and a page and a half of ground target victory claims. These are thoroughly researched it shows from the detail in each of the details of the specifics of each case.

 

Camouflage and markings of the fighters are detailed, in text and pictures as are unit badges and spinner and personal markings. These are detailed in illustrations in the appendices, as well as the stories of the fighter bomber escorts. There is an excellent section on the ground attack tactics and procedures which I found really very revealing, along with further sections on captured airfields and abandoned Fw-190's showing captured examples  and detailing just when, where and how much is left of the aircraft which crashed there.

 

 

Section ten in the appendices is devoted to aircraft profiles, along with the smaller profiles earlier in the book these are extremely interesting to the modeller and historian. Showing Spitfires, Bf109's and mostly the Fw-190's as are the protagonists of this book. They are a great source of inspiration and education as to the markings of these aircraft that are mainly in black and white throughout the book. They are probably the weight of one Kagero profiles book in themselves!

 

 

I should mention that this book is the first from the newly started Air War Publications, please do check their web site (www.airwarpublications.com) where you can download their additional material for free - such as listings, flight simulator skins and where as well you can buy the aircraft profiles from this book as prints for your wall!

Here are some more pictures of the book to show its quality

 

 

 

 

So what do we think?

If you are at all interested in the Luftwaffe and especially the Fw190 this is THE book for you ! and amazing book in the text and research and depth of story involved, this book Is fleshed out by the information and insight added by the text boxes and pictures, not to mention the absolutely  amazing appendices which could be a small book in themselves

Congratulations to the authors for a flawless account of these aircraft and their pilots during this campaign.

Adam Norenberg

Many thanks to the great people at  The Aviation Book centre for the review sample.