Introduction

The Junkers Ju 88 was possibly the best German bomber of World War two, but even if you feel differently it was the most wide spread and mass produced aircraft in German service during World war Two. The Ju 88 served in every theatre of conflict and performed many varied roles from bomber to night fighter. This book in Kagero’s Monographs series concentrates on the early Ju 88.

Review

This monographs book is printed entirely in English and is authored by Marak J. Murawski and Marek Rys. The book is a soft backed offering having a card cover and presented in portrait. The card cover has a reasonable thickness and so I believe will do a reasonable job of protecting the pages within. The paper inside is a good quality heavy paper with a satin finish. In total there are 118 pages in this book.

This offering from Kagero can be considered a book of two halves, the first section looks at the birth Junker Ju 88 and the aircraft that came before it. This title seems to concentrate on the Ju 88A1 and so is of limited use for other versions of the aircraft. The first 68 pages of the book are dedicated to text and black & white period photographs. The photographs are of a very good standard and offer a great deal of detail if you take the time to study them. The captions that accompany each of the photographs is quite short but provides an adequate level of information. The text is an easy and informative read while not being overwhelming. It is presented in small chunks, and if I am honest if I am looking at a book for visual reference I do not want to be confronted with large chunks of text and much prefer short and to the point.

The last 50 pages of the title are handed over entirely too 3D images covering aspects of the aircraft. Surprisingly it is this section of the book that I take umbrage with, not because of what is depicted rather for what is not. The 3D images cover interesting items such as canopies, radios, instrument panels and machine guns; I particular like the coverage of the gondola of the aircraft. The images are really restricted to the cockpit area of the aircraft. I am aware that there are a further two offerings in this series on the Ju 88, but I would like to see a wider spread of content in this title rather than possibly needing all three.

Conclusion

This offering from Kagero is a good book for the money, but it feels to me like a part title which if taken further would be a much better offering. £16.99 for 120 black and white photos and 120 renders is good value due to the quality of the book, but I found myself wanting more from it.