Introduction

When it comes to piston engine powered fighters during World War 2 the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 must rank as one of the best fighters to come out of Germany during the War years and was more than a match for most of what the Allies had in the air. Frontline Books as part of their Air War Archive series provides us with a title that covers the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in pictorial form.

Review

This offering from Frontline books as parts of their Air War Archive series is a soft backed title containing 172 pages. The author of this offering is Chris Goss, who is also the author of 11 of the 12 books I have found in this series so far. Pen and Sword sent me this title and I am sure they will not mind me saying that this series is very much like their 'Images of War' series.

As I have already stated this book is or can be considered a pictorial history on the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, but the text aspect is supplied by captions and an introduction. The contents of this book are laid out as follows:

Training
The Pembrey 190
Jagdeschwader 2
Other Jagdeschwader in North West Europe
Jabo
Reconnaissance
The Mediterranean

Before getting to the sections listed above there is a reasonable written introduction on the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 that makes for a reasonable introduction to the book. The photographs are period black and white offerings and I have to say that they all appear to be of a very good quality.

The photographs are provided with captions and that is where the title suffers a little. Some of these captions are exceptional in that they provide a plethora of information of what the image presents. As you continue to look through this title it becomes obvious that some of the captions are very weak in regards what they tell you. I have giving a lot of consideration as to what is going on with the captions provided considering various possible answers:

Could it be the author was lazy? No I do not believe that to be the case as a good number of the captions are exceptional providing a great deal of information.

Could it be that the information is just minimal? This is potentially accurate.

I settled on the author having provided the information that the he wanted to portray with the image.

Conclusion

For me this book could have been so much more than it is in its current format. If the captions had been provided with greater depth in a number of cases then this title could have been a stunner. With that said this book does provide a fantastic selection of photographs covering an excellent number of settings. From a knowledge point of view I have to say the book struggles with what it tells you. From the photographic side of the argument this is a stunning offering which makes it worth far more than the £12 that Pen and Sword are currently offering it for. If I am honest the photographs alone more than justify the price you will pay even if there were no captions or text at all.