• Etusivu / Frontpage
  • Artikkelit
    • Suomi >
      • Suomalaiset syöksypommittajat talvisodassa
  • Blogini
  • Articles
    • Deadly Avro Anson
    • The first aerial victory of a British pilot/air-gunner during the WW II.
    • Air gunners
    • Results of the Soviet turn times tests
    • Disaster at High Seas
    • The lengths of the RAF operational tours
    • Buchanan and Neuhoff by Patrick G. Eriksson and Rob Buchanan with Juha Vaittinen
  • My Blog
  • Päivitykset / Updates
  • Kuka olen / Who I am
  • Links
Juhan Sotahistoriasivut

Smith, J. Richard and Creek Eddie J., Me 262 Volume One

15/4/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Smith, J. Richard and Creek Eddie J., Me 262 Volume One. Classic Publications Burgess Hill, West Sussex 1997. ISBN 0 9526867 2 4. 224 pages, Dimensions: 30.6 x 22.8 x 2 cm

Simply an excellent book, full of relevant information, technical drawings and specifications. It is also a book for modelers, plenty of good quality b/w and some colour photographs, many colour profiles and an appendix on Luftwaffe’s camouflage and markings. Unfortunately difficult and very expensive to get nowadays.

This volume, the first of four, covers development of the Me 262 from its initiation to the eve of the beginning of its operational testing, in other words to the end of 1943 but the development history is taken to mid- 1944, with information on the use and careers of the ten prototypes and the first seven pre-production aircraft (Me 262 S1 – S7) and the initial production methods.

The book begins with good survey of Willy Messerschmitt’s career and the history of his firm, altogether 26 pages.
Then followed a 16 pages thorough chapter on the German jet engine development, which covers well the three jet engines that influenced the design of the Me 262 (BMW P3304, BMW P3302 (BMW 003) and Jumo 004). The BMW 003A, a different engine from the P3302, which flew in later Me 262 development aircraft, is also discussed, even if it did not influence the airframe design.  The story of the development of Me 262 itself began on the page 56. The book has many photographs of wind-tunnel models that were prepared to evaluate the several stages of airframe design that began with what looks like a straight-wing Me 309 derivative or cousin and ended with the swept-wing fighter that went to production. Also other descriptions of technical matters is very good e.g. the descriptions of Zeiss TSA 2D and Lofte 7H bomb sights

There are four appendices:
Appendix. 1. Camouflage and Markings
Appendix. 2. Me 262 Prototype Flights
Appendix. 3. German Reaction Engine Designation System
Appendix. 4. Messerschmitt Personalities and Company Organization. This is an extensive list of Messerschmitt personalities, often accompanied with a micro biography.

For modellers the Appendix 1 is interesting, for those interested in Me 262:n development the Appendices 2 and 4 are very useful.

Difficult to find something to criticize but there is always something.  
The index could be more detailed and there are some annoying typos. Also when the writers wonder why Hitler didn’t cancel his order to concentrate initially purely on the Me 262 Jabo/bomber versions soon after the D-Day when the main reason behind his reasoning, the ability of Jabo/bomber version to bomb invading Allied troops on the beaches, had disappeared they forget the effect of the Operation Fortitude, which kept Germans waiting for the “main landing” because it deluded them to believe that the D-Day was only a diversion. And there are some errors when the authors write on some side topics, e.g. the claim that LW was able to fly only about 100 sorties on D-Day, when the right figure is 300+. Also their claim on the effectiveness of the ‘Big Week’ seems to be based on what Allied thought they had achieved, at least German aircraft production figures don’t show the level of production drop in March1944 mentioned in the book.

And thanks to Arno for lending his copy.


0 Comments

    Author

    My name is Juha Vaittinen, I am 60+ years old MA, my main subject was general/world history. I have worked appr. 25 years at a couple archives. I have been interested in military and aviation history for decades.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2020
    September 2020
    January 2020
    January 2019
    March 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    April 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All
    AFV
    Air War In The Pacific
    All
    Aviation Literature
    Book Review
    British Aircraft
    German Aircraft
    Italian Aircraft
    Japanese Planes
    Military History
    Naval History
    Normandy 1944
    Soviet Aircraft
    The Battle Of Atlantic
    The Battle Of France 1940
    The Horn Of Africa
    US Planes
    World War II

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.