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Black Cross Red Star #1
Black Cross / Red Star: The Air War Over the Eastern Front, Vol. 1: Operation Barbarossa, 1941
Black Cross/Red Star-in four photo-laden volumes-is to be the most complete and detailed series ever published on the air war on the Eastern Front.It presents for the first time a true balance between German and Soviet accounts.
- GenresWorld War IIHistory
340 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2000
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About the author
Christer Bergström
41 books21 followersChrister Bergström works professionally as a teacher in English and Swedish history and is the author of several highly-acclaimed books on Second World War aviation.
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April 18, 2022
If you are seeking a book (or book series) covering the air war on the Eastern Front, you have come to the right place. I'm not sure many "one stop shops" exist on such broad topics like aerial warfare in WW2, but this book really tries hard to completely cover the Eastern Front about as thoroughly as possible with a strong emphasis on the Soviet history. I'd say this is about one third German and two thirds Soviet, but that is not a bad thing as the vast majority of what is written on WW2 is written with a sparse collection of Soviet sources.
Bergström has done a fantastic job as sourcing fresh material on the Soviet side of the war, and is providing a whole new look at the air war. The quality of the sources used is decent, and I feel he has kept a critical eye when parsing propaganda or fiction from actual facts. This is hard to do sometimes with Soviet sources, as it often seems as if a great deal of optimistic appraisals make it into official Soviet documentation. This problem is not uncommon in war, though anyone likely reading this book will already know what sources have higher value and truth content than others.
A tremendous amount of effort went into performing interviews with surviving pilots and ground personnel on both sides which really makes this book shine. Now of course the "value" of their words isn't so much found in the historical accuracy as it does deliver the personal emotions, thoughts, and feelings no report could ever contain. A personal story may lack factual accuracy (ie plane kills reported vice actual losses) but gives the reader the ability to mentally place yourself at the scene and imagine the events yourself. This humanizes these stories immensely. Facts are great, but often times they do not convey what we need to actually learn about war.
The book itself is really wonderful and well organized. I would say a perfect amount of photographs have been added to flavor the text, and appropriate amounts of maps and drawings added too where needed to give the operational picture to the reader. The writing is excellent, and I found no errors in translations to English which can often plague books like this. The writing is very meaty, and heavy with information yet not so laden as to make it a painful read. The flow between operational affairs and personalized stories/ encounters are seamless and smooth. There are plenty of personalized stories mixed in to liven up the information, and the highest value for me was hearing from the individual Soviets. These sources are harder to come by, so it was was very educational to get their insights into the affairs as they happened.
The book is very well referenced and has a huge number of primary, secondary, and individual interview sources. I found the method of referencing a bit cumbersome, albeit traditionally done. I tend to prefer the Notes at the bottom of the page rather than all dumped in the back of the book, but that is just a personal preference not worthy of a negative hit. The color plates included at the back of the book were fantastic. I found the pages to be very high quality paper and well inked. These little things really helped me swallow the high price of the book as acceptable for what I was getting. Dust jacket is amazing too.
I do believe this book is a must have for anyone wanting to learn about the air war on the Eastern Front. I would rate this book right up there with Christopher Shore's Air War books and fully expect to add Bergström's new revisions to this series (upcoming later this year 2022) into my library. These are books worth every penny paid. 5 Stars
Bergström has done a fantastic job as sourcing fresh material on the Soviet side of the war, and is providing a whole new look at the air war. The quality of the sources used is decent, and I feel he has kept a critical eye when parsing propaganda or fiction from actual facts. This is hard to do sometimes with Soviet sources, as it often seems as if a great deal of optimistic appraisals make it into official Soviet documentation. This problem is not uncommon in war, though anyone likely reading this book will already know what sources have higher value and truth content than others.
A tremendous amount of effort went into performing interviews with surviving pilots and ground personnel on both sides which really makes this book shine. Now of course the "value" of their words isn't so much found in the historical accuracy as it does deliver the personal emotions, thoughts, and feelings no report could ever contain. A personal story may lack factual accuracy (ie plane kills reported vice actual losses) but gives the reader the ability to mentally place yourself at the scene and imagine the events yourself. This humanizes these stories immensely. Facts are great, but often times they do not convey what we need to actually learn about war.
The book itself is really wonderful and well organized. I would say a perfect amount of photographs have been added to flavor the text, and appropriate amounts of maps and drawings added too where needed to give the operational picture to the reader. The writing is excellent, and I found no errors in translations to English which can often plague books like this. The writing is very meaty, and heavy with information yet not so laden as to make it a painful read. The flow between operational affairs and personalized stories/ encounters are seamless and smooth. There are plenty of personalized stories mixed in to liven up the information, and the highest value for me was hearing from the individual Soviets. These sources are harder to come by, so it was was very educational to get their insights into the affairs as they happened.
The book is very well referenced and has a huge number of primary, secondary, and individual interview sources. I found the method of referencing a bit cumbersome, albeit traditionally done. I tend to prefer the Notes at the bottom of the page rather than all dumped in the back of the book, but that is just a personal preference not worthy of a negative hit. The color plates included at the back of the book were fantastic. I found the pages to be very high quality paper and well inked. These little things really helped me swallow the high price of the book as acceptable for what I was getting. Dust jacket is amazing too.
I do believe this book is a must have for anyone wanting to learn about the air war on the Eastern Front. I would rate this book right up there with Christopher Shore's Air War books and fully expect to add Bergström's new revisions to this series (upcoming later this year 2022) into my library. These are books worth every penny paid. 5 Stars
Displaying 1 of 1 review