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Author: |
Marek J Murawki |
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Price |
15.71 Euros from www.kagero.pl |
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Reviewer: |
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| Notes: |
Markings for four aircraft. ISBN 978-83-62878-81-9 |
The latest in Kagero's 'Units' series is this one on JG 26 'Schlageter'. Like pretty much all Luftwaffe units that were formed prior to the war, it started off with another number. Pre-war units were pretty much in the hundreds and the various gruppes were often drawn from previous gruppes so you find that other units such as Stab/JG 132 as well as I./JG 234 and II./JG 234 made up the new JG.26, which was officially formed in May of 1939. Schlageter is the name of a national hero who was executed by the French while fighting against their occupation of the Ruhr just after WWI.
The unit's original equipment was the Bf-109E-1/3 and the unit flew
various 109 types until shortly after it was flying the F-2 version. It was then
that it switched over to the FW-190A and gradually the entire Geschwader
converted to the type, flying different versions, including the FW-190D, until
the end of the war. Probably the most famous pilots of JG 26 were Adolf Galland
and 'Pips' Priller, though there were certainly a number of other notables. The
unit pretty much stayed in Western Europe with some forays into the M
editerranean
and the Balkans, though these were short-lived.
The book is as much a photo book as it is a brief history of the unit. There are a goodly number of superb period photos, many of them quite large. In addition to the unit history and images, there are full color profiles of four different aircraft as well as Cartograf decals for the unique markings of these four aircraft in the three major scales. I've borrowed the images of the four aircraft from the Kagero web site as the markings pages are far too large to duplicate and Kagero has them all on one image.
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-1;
W.Nr. 3413, 'Black 5', flown by Lt. Hans Krug of 5./JG 26, Chievres airfield,
France, early June 1940,
- Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-2; W.Nr. 0125 304, flown by Hptm. Johannes Seifert, Kommandeur of I./JG 26, St. Omer-Arques airfield, France, late May 1942,
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6; flown by Hptm. Klaus Mietusch, Kommandeur of III./JG 26, Nordholz airfield, Germany, late July 1943,
- Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-8; W.Nr. 170 661, 'Brown 13', flown by Lt. Gerhard Vogt, Kapitän of 7./JG 26, France, June 1944.
The decals are in all three of the major scales and there is color information provided for all of the aircraft. You'll notice that none of these are of particularly famous aces, which makes them that much more desirable to those who tire of seeing the same subjects done over and over again by decal companies.
In all, it is an excellent book and having the decals only increases its value to the buyer.
November 2013
You can find this book at www.kagero.pl. Thanks to Kagero for the review set.
If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.