Books to stay away from

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Powering the Luftwaffe: German Aero Engines of World War II
Jason R. Wisniewski

Amazon product ASIN 1460215842View: https://www.amazon.com/Powering-Luftwaffe-German-Engines-World/dp/1460215842


I feel a bit bad criticising any book, because its a huge slog to prepare any manuscript and get it published. However this was just so dissapointing in almost every respect that it really REALLY should have had another year put into it (as it was such a good idea). A great example of an early draft being shoved through to print....

The first few pages with maps showing where some of the factories are, was quite good (one of the few bits of genuine research, maps from USSBS survey reports) - but the rest is literally Wikipedia copy-pasted, and contains little I cant find from a 2 minute google search.

I don't have it to hand, so I cant really remember if the content is factually incorrect, but it should have never been published at that stage of writing. If the author is reading this, I encourage you to carry on with it and release as a new edition with some more research. Its not ready in its current state for commercial print.
 
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Sorry my ignorance is showing, what does POH mean? I found several possible definitions?
 

Caiden is more a novelist than a Historian. His book list has more works of fiction than history.

I do like Edward Jablonski works from the 70's. The multi volume Airwar, and Flying Fortress.
 
It was so disappointing to me to learn about Caiden. I had read several of his books and whatever else you can say about him he is a fine writer. I really enjoyed his books and made a fool of myself more than once quoting his stuff until I learned about him.
 
I remember reading his book on the B-17 as a kid and thinking the Fortress was nearly indestructible...I mean WAY more then it actually was. What a letdown when I learned the truth.
 
I saw a new series of "bookazine" at Books A Million, All About History, Story Of the First World War.
So many misprints and errors if I do see something in it I didn't know before I would have a hard time trusting the information, because of the known false information in it.
For example a statement by Lt. Alfred Splittgerber, 211th IR, states "The superiority of the German Army has never been made clearer, etc. etc." Two pages later the same exact statement is attributed to Lt. Ernst Junger,73 Fusilier Rgt.
The Red Baron was shot down by Cpt Roy Brown, and Cpt. Arthur Brown, both on the same page, though they do mention it was possible the Australians actually were responsible.
Some of the illustrations are so bad they're funny. A aircraft performing a Immelmann turn is shown swapping ends 180 degrees in the middle of the turn. A Morane Saulnier L ided as a Vickers FB5, and then correctly identified on the next page.
Way too many other errors to list them all.
Evidently nobody proofreads anything any more before it goes to final print.

I should check facts before I post , the Red Baron was maybe shot down by Capt. Arthur Roy Brown, so now I know his entire name.
 
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In light of the fatal injury to Richthofen - bullet entered under the right armpit and exited the left nipple, it's been determined he was killed by ground fire, as Capt. Brown had been attacking from Richthofen's high-six O'Clock - which would have resulted in wounds from behind, traveling downward.

There have been several suggestions as to whom made the fatal shot, none concrete, but the wound clearly indicates that ground fire killed him.
 
tyrodtom said:
I saw a new series of "bookazine" at Books A Million, All About History, Story Of the First World War.
I should check facts before I post , the Red Baron was maybe shot down by Capt. Arthur Roy Brown, so now I know his entire name.
Click to expand...

And he was trying to protect his boyhood friend, WOP May, who later went on to be a Canadian bush pilot of some fame.
 
I gave up reading Bergerud's "Fire in the Sky".
Click to expand...

Sacre Bleu!... I have to rebut the two negatives on this. "Fire in the Sky" is an awesome book and most of it is great, but it is a massive tome at 720 pages so you maybe you hit an area dull to you. Its a modern style book that covers the topics in a multi-dimensional manner a bit like "Shattered Sword" did for Midway and is entertaining to read. I found "Fire in the Sky" best for its coverage of early Guadacanal (the conflict of tactics and strategy that Japan chose) and MANY great pilot stories, he also has a great description of evolution of WW2 aircraft far more detailed and explained than expected.
 
I have a book somewhere, one of those big "coffee table" items, long on pictures and short on facts, that has picture of an Oscar labeled a "Zero." Another one of the same type has a picture of one of the Tora Tora Tora modified AT-6 "Zeros" that says, "We are not sure if this is a Zero or one of the postwar reproductions."

Then of course there is TV. My favorite all time howler was some great video of a couple of P-80A's in England with the voice over, "These F-80's are called P-80 because the P stood for prototype." The really bad thing about this kind of stuff is that they HAD to make it up - no reference source or expert would have told them that. I suspect that since it was a British production that they were confused by the fact that WWII British prototype aircraft had a big "P" on the sides.
 
I did not about Caiden. Dang! The Ragged Rugged Warriors? What about Saburu Sakai's bio Samurai and Iron Annie?
 
In "Rugged Ragged Warriors" Caiden does quote quite a bit from the official history of the 67th Ftr Sqdron, which flew P-400's from the "canal, so that much is pretty accurate as far as I know.

I actually saw him hereabouts a couple of times. A friend of mine had known him for many years and told me not long before Caiden's death, "I saw Marty Caiden the other day and talked to him a bit. It was kinda sad. He's getting old and is not the same. We talked for 15 min and he did not even piss me off once."
 

His books were great reads, but really the written version of a historical movie.
 
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