Black Cross / Red Star: The Air War Over the Eastern Front, Vol. 1: Operation Barbarossa, 1941

Millions of pages have been written about the aerial conflict over Western Europe over the decades since the war. Given the number of units and aircraft involved over the Eastern Front, this part of aviation lore has been sadly neglected. Part of the reason has to due with the availability of the records. Only with the recent fall of the Iron Curtain have researchers been allowed more than limited access to Soviet records. Christer Bergstrom and Andrey Mikhailov are two such men who spent years interviewing the pilots who fought and suffered in the skies of Eastern Europe. The book begins with a comparison of the two air forces involved which includes their relative experience prior to June 22, 1941, training standards, tactical doctrine and aircraft. The effect of Stalins purges on leading airmen and aircraft engineers and its effect on the Russian Air Force is also detailed. Of interest is the German fighter pilots hunting philosophy that stressed individual achievement through aerial victories. 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.