Focke-Wulf Fw 190A by Dietmar Hermann, Ulrich Leverenz, and Eberhard Weber. Schiffer Publishing Ltd, Atglen PA. 2004. $59.95.
Ask ninety percent of avid aviation readers whether enough has been written about the Fw 190, and ninety percent would say yes — more than enough, thank you, move on to something less documented. Yet we ninety percent would be wrong, and this book is the proof.
Its value rests on four distinct foundations, each sufficient by itself to justify the purchase.
First, the book commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Fw 190's first flight on June 1, 1939, and does so by honoring not just the aircraft but the pilots — particularly chief test pilot Hans Sanger, whose contributions to the development of the type have been consistently underplayed in the English-language literature.
Second, the personal reminiscences. Designer Kurt Tank speaks here, as do test pilots Sanger and Heinrich Beauvais, and Gordon Gollob, the 150-victory ace who became infamous for replacing the admired Adolf Galland as General of the Day Fighters in 1944. These are primary sources, not summaries of primary sources. The distinction matters enormously for a type this thoroughly covered.
Third, the photographs. The extraordinary quality of the images on glossy paper makes this book a resource of the first order for modelers and for anyone seriously contemplating building an Fw 190 reproduction. The technical detail captured in these photographs exceeds what is available in most other sources.
Fourth, the cover painting by the admirable Steve Ferguson — an Fw 190 driving through a B-17 formation — which is reproduced as the book's hardcover as well. It sets the tone perfectly.
What holds all four elements together is a fascinating balance of engineering description and personal accounts. This is a book that avoids both of the twin failures of aviation writing: the Stephen Ambrose approach of stringing together episodic serial accounts that lose the engineering entirely, and the opposite failure of burying the human story under specifications and modification states until the book becomes unreadable. Hermann, Leverenz, and Weber navigate between those failures with skill.
It is worth noting that in the perennial Fw 190 versus Bf 109 debate — a debate that has generated its own small library — the Fw 190 is generally considered the more aesthetic of the two. An official German comparative report bears this out technically as well: the Fw 190 had a better roll rate (probably the best of any fighter produced in World War II), broad-track landing gear that made ground handling genuinely manageable, and superior pilot visibility. These were not minor advantages.
A must purchase for anyone interested in the Luftwaffe or in World War II aviation generally. Highly recommended.